LIBRARY QF CONGRESS; 



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LIGHT 



THE LAST THINGS. 



By WILLIAM B. HAYDEN. 




NEW YORK : 

PUBLISHED BY THE GENERAL CONTENTION 
OF THE 

NEW JERUSALEM IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

AT ITS PUBLISHING HOUSE: 

20 Cooper Union. 
1869. 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 186S, by 

JOS. E. PUTNAM, Manager, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 

Southern District of New York. 



The New York Printing Company, 

8 i, 83, and 85 Centre Street \ 

New York. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

New truth for a new age ; the extraordinary mental activity 
and increased knowledge of our times a preparation for 
a new disclosure of holy truth from the Word of God, 
through a better understanding of its meaning 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Reality and extent of the other world; all the previous 
generations of men on our earth, now living in societies 
there ; illustrations from the Bible 17 

CHAPTER III. 

Seership, or the sight opened ; the seers of the Old Testa- 
ment men who had the capacity of looking into the 
other world ; its nearness to this world ; the 4 ' Visions 
of Angels" effected by the opening of the ''sight" in 
men 25 

CHAPTER IV. 

The spiritual body contained within the natural body, being 
withdrawn from it at the decease of the latter; and 
man rises, almost immediately at death, in a perfect 
human form, into the spiritual world. Illustrations from 
Scripture 31 

CHAPTER V. 

Proofs from the Old Testament showing that " Sheol," 
being a place of the departed into which good and evil 
alike went, can mean neither heaven nor hell, but an 
intermediate world of spirits 43 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE VI. 

Page 
Proofs of the same with respect to c ' Hades " from the New 

Testament. The parable of the wheat and tares : 

representations of the Apocalypse 50 

CHAPTER VII. 

That intermediate world needed, as a place where the 
u Judgment" occurs, and where the well-disposed are 
instructed and prepared for Heaven. The Truth judges, 
while men are left in moral freedom : but the separa- 
tion between good and evil becomes at length complete 
and final. G-od punishes none ; but the evil cast them- 
selves down 60 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The history of that intermediate world, drawn from Scrip- 
ture. Brief view of the Apocalypse : most of the scenes < 
described in that book occurred in Hades; instances 
cited in illustration 78 

CHAPTER IX. 

History of u Sheol " under the old dispensations. Several 
" Judgments" have been effected in it ; one in the 
days of Noah, another in the days of Lot 89 

CHAPTER X. 

An important part of our Lord's work lay in Hades ; con- 
sisting of a "Judgment," or separation of evil spirits 
from the good, the overthrow of the infernal powers, 
the elevation of the good, and the consequent deliver- 
ance of men from the bondage of hell. Fulness of 
the prophecies in this respect. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Mal- 
achi, etc 101 

CHAPTER XL 

The Lord's work on the unclean spirits, when He appeared. 
The gospel history. His intercourse with, and opera- 



CONTENTS. Vll 

Page 
tion in, the unseen world, constant and important ; 

resulting in a u Judgment," the overthrow of the in- 
fernal crew, and the redemption or deliverance of man- 
kind 112 

CHAPTER XII. 

The end of the world not foretold in Scripture ; but only 
the " Consummation of the Age ;" i.e., the closing of 
the apostolic dispensation, and the beginning of another, 
viz. : the apocalyptic dispensation or age of the New 
Jerusalem 126 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The symbolism of prophecy implying, in the letter, physi- 
cal destruction and commotion, means really, impor- 
tant moral and spiritual changes in the Church and 
world. Proofs and illustrations. The prophecy in 2 
Peter, in. , considered \ 134 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The stability and perpetuity of the physical earth, in. its 
present form, argued from Scripture, and the indica- 
tions of geology in regard to its past periods 149 

CHAPTER XV. 

The perpetuity of the earth argued further, from its own 

indestructibility, and the divine purposes in regard to it. 157 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The visible heavens not to be destroyed. The stars too 
large to fall to the earth. Astronomy demonstrates the 
permanent stability of the planetary system. The 
earth to remain forever, as a field or plane for the ful- 
filment of all the glorious prophecies with respect to the 
Church 164 



V1H CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

PAGE 

The " Clouds" in which the Lord is predicted to make His 
second appearing, are the symbols in the letter of His 
Word, which cloud or veil the truth of the prophecy, 
until it is fulfilled ; and when it is fulfilled and the 
meaning explained, He then comes, according to the 
intent of the prophecy 170 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The u Eye" meant is the eye of the mind, or the rational 
thought, to which He now comes, in a new age of 
light, in a new and wonderful disclosure of sacred and 
heavenly truth. Illustrations from the signs of the 
times 173 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The mourning of the tribes of the earth is the opposition 
felt by the evil conservatism of the age, to the or- 
ganic changes which the establishment of truth, jus- 
tice, and true Christian love, requires 184 

CHAPTER XX. 

The New Jerusalem a New Church on earth. The end of 
the apostolic dispensation came about the middle of the 
last century ; the Last Judgment occurred in the World 
of Spirits in 1757 ; the second coming of the Lord 
effected by the revelation of the new heavenly truth ; 
the New Jerusalem, the real Church of the Future, 
already begmning to be established. Its platform of 
catholic doctrine . . . , 187 



CHAPTER 1. 

NEW TRUTH FOR A NEW AGE. 
"And I saw heaven opened." — Rev. xtx. 11. 



The mental activity of our age is without a 
parallel in history. The human mind is wider 
awake than ever before. Rational inquiry, upon all 
subjects, is pursued with greater animation and a 
quicker intelligence, than it used to be in the former 
ages. Since the middle of the last century a new 
era, — by common consent, — has dawned in human 
affairs ; and human society everywhere wears a new 
aspect. 

As we look abroad and contemplate the scene, in 
its multiform details, we can see, all around us, the 
words of the prophecy, — " Behold, I make all things 
new," — in the process of rapid fulfilment. 

Even before it began, the Seer of the New Jerusa- 
lem had declared that the movement would come, 
and had laid open in his writings the spiritual causes 
which were to produce it. He had announced that 

1* 



10 NEW TRUTH FOR A NEW AGE. 

the things foretold in the Book of Revelation are at 
this day fulfilled ; that the Last Judgment predicted 
in the Scriptures was executed in the World of 
Spirits, intermediate between heaven and hell, in the 
year 1757. This, consisting as it did of a separa- 
tion — a simple separation — of the good from among 
the evil, and of the evil from the good, sending each 
to their permanent abodes — above and below, cleared 
that intermediate world of its old inhabitants, 
thus removing the dark cloud of bad influences 
which hung upon mankind, leaving that world open 
and free for the descent, through it, of pure and 
good influences to men out of heaven, or through 
heaven from the Lord. 

And, in connection with this, he announced, too, 
the second Advent of the Lord ; taking place, not as 
a personal and visible return of Him to our earth 
to destroy the world, but coming, as He is represented 
here in the 19th chapter of Revelation, as "the 
Word of God," i. e.< in and through a fuller revela- 
tion of His own Divine Truth ; by an exposition of 
the deeper meanings of His Word, from beginning 
to end ; by the disclosure of the exact meaning of all 
divine prophecy ; by unfolding, in his writings, the 
states of the departed and of life among the angels. 

These events, coming together, mark the con> 
mencement of a New Dispensation, indicated in so 
much divine prophecy, and looked forward to in all 
ages of the Christian Church as the " latter day 
glory ;" predicted in Daniel as the divine or heavenly 
kingdom to be established in the latter days, to 



NEW TRUTH FOR A NEW AGE. 11 

endure forever ; and signified by the New Jerusalem 
in the Book of Revelation. 

It is these great causes, — instruments in the hand 
of Divine Providence, and vivified by a constant in- 
flux descending from Him, — that, as we believe, have 
inaugurated this New Age and are pushing forward 
its developments. Look at the vast preparations 
which are and have been making everywhere 
around us for the introduction of some new state of 
human society, and the commencement of some new 
phase of the world's history; old abuses everywhere 
melting away and being removed out of sight ; a 
quickened sense of justice and of right everywhere 
prevailing, so that institutions of all kinds are forced 
— sooner or later — to square themselves by them; 
benevolence towards the unfortunate classes every- 
where felt; political and civil freedom coming to 
be accorded to the masses, nearly the world over; 
great movements taking place in the religious world 
towards the liberalization of sentiment, and the 
exaltation of a true Christian life as the great thing 
to be aimed at; intelligence quickened and illus- 
trated by vast stores of new and extraordinary 
knowledge ; a new continent given to the world in 
the discovery and settlement of America ; and a new 
sky given in the discovery of the Copernican system 
and the revelations of astronomy, as preparations for 
this new age ; and, since, a new opening of the phy- 
sical earth to our view, in the revelations of geology. 
Later still, by the explorations of every sci- 
ence known to man, thought is excited and in- 



12 NEW TRUTH FOR A NEW AGE. 

quiry stimulated, until at length, a new and occult 
universe has been discovered, latent, and hidden, 
as it were, within the other. The invisible and im- 
ponderable agents of nature have been drawn forth 
from their lurking-places and harnessed in the ser- 
vice of man. Steam, heat, electricity, magnetism, 
have become working powers and available agents 
in lifting man to a higher plane. They labor for 
him. against the impediments of space and time 
until those impediments seem well-nigh extinguished ; 
for, to-day, all Christendom, with a large part of 
heathendom, is brought together in momentary com- 
munication, like the population of a single city, or, 
more, perhaps, like one vast human body ; its rami- 
fied network of telegraphs acting like an immense 
nervous system, radiating from the great capitals of 
the world as from so many ganglionic centres of 
vital force-, binding the whole together into one body 
of sensation, and into a common consciousness of 
thought and feeling. 

He who supposes that all these grand develop- 
ments mean only physical and civil progress, has not 
yet mastered the great problems of the sacred philos- 
ophy of history. Who does not see at a glance, that 
great spiritual forces are at work, turning the wheels 
of events, and that the end and drift of all these 
mighty achievements is spiritual and moral pro- 
gress ? Religion is, after all, the very core and centre 
of every man's life ; and, hence, under the constant 
supervision of Divine Providence, the church is the 
great axle upon which the wheel of human history 



NEW TRUTH FOR A NEW AGE. 13 

revolves. A new, more enlightened, and better 
phase of the Church Universal is the object and final 
goal of all these preparations. 

This expansion of natural knowledge is needed 
to form a basis for the reception and understanding 
of spiritual knowledge. The grand analogies of the 
universe hold good throughout. The former revela- 
tions of heavenly truth were conformed to the limited 
range of men's natural knowledge. There is just as 
vast a universe of new spiritual knowledge to be 
opened and revealed to human thought, as these later 
centuries have opened of natural science. But the 
natural must come first, to enlarge the range of 
ideas, break up narrow prejudices, illustrate the intel- 
ligence, quicken the thirst for knowledge, and fur- 
nish visible analogies in which exalted truths and 
great spiritual realities may be seen and viewed as 
in so many mirrors of reflection. 

How could man comprehend, appreciate, or realize 
the vast, complicated, and subtle system of forces, 
which play through and operate from the spiritual 
world, until he had discovered, as if by his own intel- 
ligence, something of that mysterious system of 
invisible forces which play upon and mould the 
phenomena of the material world ? How could he 
appreciate a revelation concerning the powers and 
functions of the spiritual body until he had known 
something of the wonderful and inexplicable things 
contained in the physiologies and chemistries of the 
mortal body ? or, how could he be ready to believe, 
or intelligent enough to understand, that, everywhere 



14 NEW TRUTH FOR A NEW AGE. 

within and beneath the letter of the "Word of God, 
there lies concealed an inexhaustible mine of spiritual 
and heavenly truth, until, after having explored the 
visible universe, he had found the march of physical 
science to be only the constant unveiling of hidden 
mystery, from beginning to end ? Not a square yard of 
sky, to which he has directed his optic tube, nor a foot 
of earth decomposed, but has opened to him concealed 
wonders of which his senses never told him, though he 
had enjoyed their observations for thousands of years. 

Hence, we conclude, that a new revelation of holy 
truth, instead of being at this day improbable, is, 
on the other hand, the very thing to have been ex- 
pected, and that a new and better understanding 
of Sacred Scripture is precisely what all this great 
movement of natural intelligence seems to foreshadow 
and predict. We may as soon suppose that an intel- 
ligent human parent at this day among us would 
withhold from his children the common information 
afforded by our schools and books, as that the great 
Heavenly Parent of us all should withhold from the 
great family of men the new spiritual knowledge 
suited to the advanced maturity at which they have 
now arrived. 

He has not done so. The revelation has been 
made, and we have it. According to the pre- 
diction of our text, heaven has been opened, and 
the doctrinal system of angels has been given to men. 
The light of the New Jerusalem is beginning to 
shine in the world for the benefit of all who desire or 
are willing to walk by the light of it. 



NEW TRUTH FOR A NEW AGE. 15 

I shall be able to mention but very few of the 
things contained in the writings of Emanuel Sweden- 
borg. The most I can expect to do is to lead inquir- 
ing minds into the vestibule of the great temple of 
truth ; leaving them to enter subsequently and ex- 
plore for themselves. There are no writings which 
so richly repay the reader for the trouble of perusal 
as these. 

We are a reading people. We almost literally 
devour books — novels, poetry, biography, history, 
philosophy. There is a plentiful supply of very 
good, popular, religious literature; and yet I am 
able to testify, after many years experience, both of 
what is in these writings and of what other books 
contain, that there is no literature in the world — 
outside the Bible — equal to them ; no writings that 
can be found where so much truth can be learned ; 
none where so much elevating thought, and so 
much satisfying mental food obtained, or with so 
little labor. Considered even as a literary and phi- 
losophic achievement, they are more worthy of peru- 
sal than any other volumes that can be taken from 
the shelf. And, as the great Atlantic cable, though 
apparently a failure at first, yet, in the very nature 
and progress of things, was sure to be a final success, 
so these writings are sure to attract, more and more, 
the attention of mankind, insuring careful and can- 
did perusal, until they form the connecting medium 
between the two great continents of mind; — until 
religion and philosophy are bound together in one 
indissoluble, rational tie, and the thought of men be 



16 NEW TRUTH FOR A NEW AGE. 

brought into harmony and correspondence with the 
thought of heaven. 

These doctrines are not to be blindly received. 
Like all real truths, they are addressed to the intel- 
lectual understanding and quickened intelligence of 
men. It is important that religious truth, especially, 
be received into a perfectly free ground in the will, 
and be rationally implanted ; that so the religious 
affections can act in unison with the reasonable con- 
victions of the mind, and the whole man be fed and 
elevated. 

In exploring such subjects as those which are now 
before us, the great requisite is to pass, as far as 
possible, out of the region of obscure, vague, and in- 
definite thought into one of intelligent illustration 
— of clear ideas, and definite, fully formed concep- 
tions. By a little patient thinking, a great deal 
more may be known on subjects of this kind than 
those who have never examined them are at all 
aware. 



REALITY AND EXTENT OF THE OTHER WORLD. 17 



CHAPTER IT. 

REALITY AND EXTENT OF THE OTHER WORLD. 
11 — A great multitude, which no man could number." — Rev. vn. 9. 



The Apostle Paul frequently speaks of " the pow- 
ers of the world to come," and of the great influence 
of those " powers " upon us, either for good or for 
evil ; while the Sacred Scripture throughout is full 
of such references and allusions. 

We shall be helped to realize the actualness (so 
to speak) of that world, by simply considering, for a 
while, its extent. As we thoughtfully contemplate 
its vastness, the sense and impression of its reality, 
too, will gradually deepen. In Swedenborg's work 
on Heaven and Hell, a chapter is devoted to what 
he calls " The Immensity of Heaven," in which a 
great many interesting and instructive things are 
contained; among others, this one, that in it (i. e., 
in heaven) the great mercy and goodness of the Lord 
are displayed in His receiving into it, not only good 
Christians of all denominations, but also all good 
men — every one who has in his heart looked up to a 
divine Being, and led a good, sincere, honest, and 



18 REALITY AND EXTENT OF THE OTHER WORLD. 

orderly life, according to the best of his knowledge, 
in whatever age of the world he may have lived, or 
from whatever country he may have come ; whether 
he were Jew or Gentile, or whatever may have been 
his religion while in the world. 

This thought alone will suggest to us something 
of how immense the present population of heaven 
must be ; for it is constantly and rapidly receiving 
additions, every year and every day. And when we 
add to this another fact taught us in these writings, 
namely, that all infants likewise are received there, 
and educated under the auspices of the Lord ; and 
reflect that, according to extensive medical statistics, 
it is calculated that about half the human race die in 
infancy (i. e., under five years of age), we have an- 
other vast source from which the population of that 
realm has been increased. 

The Scriptures frequently refer to this vastness. 
When the Psalmist would give an idea of the infini- 
tude or incomprehensible greatness of the Creator, 
he expresses it by saying that " even the heaven of 
heavens cannot contain Him ;" thus making use, for 
comparison, of heaven, as the greatest among known 
things for immensity or vastness. 

And the Apostle John, in the Revelation — when, 
as we read, a portion only of that population tvas 
opened to his view — speaks of them in these well- 
known words : " After this, I beheld, and lo, a great 
multitude, which no man could number, of all na- 
tions, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood 
before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in 



REALITY AND EXTENT OF THE OTHER WORLD. 19 

white robes, and palms in tlieir hands." Now, when 
we consider that this multitude included none of the 
angelic host, none of the sealed among Jews or 
Christians, but was composed of " the nations" i. e., 
of Gentiles, and of people from beyond Christendom, 
we can see what a fragment they were of the inhab- 
itants of heaven ; and yet the Apostle declares them 
to be a multitude so great as to defy the powers of 
human reckoning to compute ; that is, for human 
thought to realize or comprehend by any definite ex- 
pression. So in many other places, especially in the 
Revelation, are the inhabitants of heaven spoken of 
as immense in numbers, existing in vast concourses 
or communities, and constantly receiving accessions. 

But even the whole heavenly world is only one 
department of the spiritual world. There are vast 
populations in other departments of it. There are 
those spirits who are not yet prepared for heaven, 
but are on the way thither. There are those who 
do not like to be in heaven — who do not love its 
light, or its order, or its goodness — who a great deal 
rather obey the impulses of their own selfish desires 
than obey the Lord and His holy truth ; and so they 
have residences apart. And there is a very great 
multitude of them. In the very nature of the case, 
viewed rationally and from what we see and know 
of human nature in this world, the population of those 
communities there, who choose evil rather than good 
for themselves, must be immense. So much for the 
extent of that world. 

Let us remember, too, its permanency — the abi- 



20 REALITY AND EXTENT OF THE OTHER WORLD. 

ding character of its communities and their inhab- 
itants. 

The population of our earth increases. In two 
thousand or twenty-five hundred years it has gone 
up, it is computed, from something over 200,000,000 
to nearly 1,200,000,000. The inhabitants of China, 
it is estimated, in a much less time than that, have 
risen from about 20,000,000 to over 400,000,000. In 
our own country we are witnesses of a similar aug- 
mentation of numbers to a remarkable degree. Our 
city, within our own memories, has largely increased. 
We have seen it grow and expand before our eyes. 

And yet, while all this takes place in our earthly 
communities, think how short the stay of men in 
this world is, after all ! How many we lose every 
year by death ! And in how short a period the 
whole mass is removed, and a new generation is on 
the stage! 

In this respect, our countries form a striking con- 
trast to the communities in the spiritual world. 
They do not lose any of their inhabitants by death. 
They are receiving accessions as rapidly as births oc- 
cur in this world; and what they get they keep. 
When a man who has gone into the spiritual world 
enters a heavenly society, to abide permanently as a 
member of it, he remains there forever, he goes no 
more out. Hence we can see with what constant 
rapidity those communities must be swelling in size 
by the increase of numbers. Swedenborg in one 
place says, that to gO from any part of the natural 
world to any part of the spiritual world, is like 



REALITY AND EXTENT OF THE OTHER WORLD. 21 

going from a small country village into a large and 
populous city, so immense is the concourse of spir- 
its one everywhere encounters. 

In every permanent community in that world 
there are, of course, those who have been there for 
ages. Those communities began to be formed when 
history began ; — as soon as men began to be removed 
from this world to that. Hence, many of them are 
several thousands of years old. There are the ante- 
diluvian patriarchs, still alive. And their descend- 
ants, the world's population in all the ages since ; — 
perhaps a thousand generations of men. The world's 
past has not been blotted out, it has only been trans- 
ferred to a still more living scene of action. The 
great nations of antiquity are all there, — still active 
and flourishing: the men and women who formed 
the successive populations of Babylon and Nineveh, 
of Thebes and Memphis, of Greece, Rome, and 
Carthage. 

Our Lord, in His day, to the Sadducees, who de- 
nied that there is any resurrection, i. £., that there is 
any immortality to the soul, or any life after death, 
said, — "Now that the dead are raised, even Moses 
showed at the bush, when he called the Lord the 
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of 
Jacob, for God is not a God of the dead, but of the 
living i for, to Him, all are living." They had 
never died. They had simply put off their external 
bodies, their mortal part, and risen into the spiritual 
world. And there they were, and are, alive, and all 
their ancestors, and all their descendants, with them. 



22 .REALITY AKD EXTENT OF THE OTHER WORLD. 

Members of the Jewish Church lived in the ex- 
pectation of seeing those patriarchs, as well as their 
own immediate ancestors, when they should go into 
the spiritual world. Hence the phrase so frequent- 
ly occurring in Scripture, in relation to a man when 
he deceased, that "he was gathered unto his fa- 
thers," meaning thereby that he had gone to live 
with his ancestors in the spiritual world. And, in 
the 14th chapter of Isaiah, the different nations and 
people in that world, who had gone thither from the 
great oriental empires, are represented as rising up 
to meet the King of Babylon at his decease, and 
greeting him on his entrance into their world. 

On the mount of transfiguration, as we read in 
the Gospel, Moses came and stood by the side of our 
Lord, and the three disciples saw him. Moses had 
been gone about fifteen hundred years, and all that 
time had been living in the spiritual world. The 
prophet Elijah, also, stood there, and was seen by 
them. And he had been in the other world a little 
less than a thousand years. And, so, one of the an- 
gels who was seen by John, in the Revelation, with 
whom he conversed, and who, as he says, showed 
him many of the things seen in that remarkable vis- 
ion, told him that he was a human being, like him- 
self, and that he had been, when in this world, one 
of the former prophets. Now, whichever of those 
prophets he may have been, he must then have been 
living in the spiritual world at least six or seven 
hundred years. 

This, concerning the spiritual world of our own 



REALITY AOT> EXTENT OF THE OTHER WORLD. 23 

earth. But we are taught in our writings that 
there are other earths in the universe; that there 
are multitudes of other planets, some in our solar 
system, but vastly many more beyond our solar sys- 
tem ; that nearly all of them are covered with in* 
habitants, as our earth is, that being the object for 
which the planets are created, — that they may be 
peopled with inhabitants. We are told, too, that 
those inhabitants are men, — human beings like our- 
selves, — though in great variety, even as there is a 
great variety in the inhabitants of our own globe ; 
and thus that this saying of the Lord in the Gospel 
is true, in its largest sense, — " And other sheep have 
I, also, which are not of this fold ; — them also must 
I bring, that there may be one fold and one shep- 
herd." 

In the highest or universal heaven all are gath- 
ered under one Shepherd, and into one fold, no 
matter from what earth or planet they may have 
come. 

These things in regard to the visible heavens, or 
floating bodies of our sky, are confirmed by the 
discoveries of astronomy, and by the rational con- 
clusions of astronomers founded thereon. We have 
introduced the topic briefly, here, merely to bring 
into view, in passing, some conception of the vast- 
ness, or real immensity of the universe of the Crea- 
tor, — of the small province in it which our world 
constitutes, and of the limited number of which 
the present population of our globe consists, — when 
compared to the untold myriads included in the 



24 REALITY AOT) EXTENT OF THE OTHER WORLD. 

entire family of human beings, as that is seen and 
viewed by the eyes of the Lord our God ; or, even 
by the eyes of angels. 

Our principal interest of course must be confined 
to the spiritual world of our own earth, and it is to 
this, therefore, that I propose to direct the rest of our 
attention and inquiry. 



OR THE SIGHT OPENED. 25 



CHAPTER III. 

SEERSHIP, OR THE SIGHT OPENED. 

" He that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer." 
-1 Sam. ix. 9. 



A question which naturally arises with many, is, 
Where is this vast spiritual world, and its throng- 
ing populations ? 

Under the instructions of the New Jerusalem, we 
answer, it is not far off. It is not located in any 
physically remote region of the universe. It is near 
by, and close around us. Internally, and as to our 
minds or spirits, we are in constant association with 
it, and our spiritual associations are according to 
our affinities. They depend for their character upon 
our own states of thought and feeling;. We are 
always in communication with just those portions of 
the spiritual world to which our prevailing desires 
incline us. Here, in this world we naturally draw 
about us those with whom we are in sympathy and 
for whom we feel an attraction, while we avoid and 
separate from those for whom we feel an aversion. 
It is so with respect to our internal association with 

2 



26 SEERSHIP, OR THE SIGHT OPENED. 

inhabitants of the spiritual world. We draw near to 
those whose association we love, and they draw near 
to us, in mutual sympathy, while those spirits, who 
are widely different from us in character and feel- 
ing, have no bond or attraction by which they can, 
or desire to, come and associate with us. 

This nearness of the spiritual world is constantly 
set forth in the Bible. And, as we read, it was in 
the early ages very frequently rendered visible. All 
divine revelations come, of course, from that world, 
being communications from inhabitants of that world 
to inhabitants of this. Hence, whenever a revela- 
tion has been made, it has been effected by an 
opening made between this world and that, a 
lifting, so to speak, of the thin veil which separates 
the two worlds from each other. It is most properly 
called an opening ; for it is effected by an opening 
in men of perceptions which are usually closed up, 
that is, by an opening of the spiritual senses. 

Every man has these senses, by virtue of having 
been born an immortal spirit. They are the senses 
which come into operation the moment the physical 
body is laid aside, and man enters the spiritual 
world. They are the senses by which he then holds 
his intercourse with his fellow-beings, by which 
he sees, hears, touches and converses with spirits 
in that world, as he formerly held intercourse or 
conversed with men in this world. They are the 
eyes, the ears, and the hands of his spiritual body ; 
which body is within the mortal body while he lives 
here in the world ; but, as a bird in the shell has 



OR THE SIGHT OPENED. 27 

its wings, and all that wonderful apparatus by which 
it is hereafter to fly aloft in the air, folded up, hidden, 
and scarcely developed at all, so these spiritual senses 
in men, are, while they remain here in the world, 
rudimental, for the most part unused, being covered 
over and concealed by the shell of the mortal body. 

Now these inward senses, which every one posses- 
ses, are capable of being opened, or brought into 
exercise whenever it pleases the Lord that they should 
be; whenever any heavenly or divine purpose can 
be accomplished by it. And whenever they are 
brought into exercise, then the spiritual world around 
us immediately becomes visible to that individual ; 
he sees some of its inhabitants, and hears them 
speak. 

In the early ages this open intercourse with the 
spiritual world was common, and before the Fall of 
Man it was constant. Such is the state that all the 
prophets of the Old Testament were in when they 
had their visions. They were said to be in holy 
vision, and conversed with angels, and had many 
heavenly things shown to them. A vision, as applied 
to them and in its real sense, means something that 
is distinctly seen. A vision is not a mere dream, as 
some may be apt to fancy, but a visible reality, actu- 
ally seen ; as we are told concerning the women at 
the sepulchre, that they had seen a vision of angels^ 
who had told them that the Lord had risen from the 
dead. And John, in the Revelation, declares over 
and over again, in relation to the things there de- 
scribed, that he saw and heard them : " I, John, saw 



28 SEERSHIP, OR THE SIGHT OPENED. 

these tilings and heard them," — a declaration which 
is repeated more than a hundred times in this book 
alone, and several hundreds more in other parts of 
the Bible. 

Hence, in the ancient times, the prophets were 
called " seers," because there was opened in them 
this capacity of seeing what to other men is invisible, 
— the other world and its inhabitants. 

In the 24th chapter of Numbers we read of Ba- 
laam, the Syrian prophet, who foretold the grandeur 
of Israel : " The man whose eyes are open hath said ; 
who heard the words of God and saw the vision of 
the Almighty ; falling into a trance, but having his 
eyes open." So in the 9th chapter of 1st Samuel we 
read of Saul, who went to find Samuel, where it 
says : " Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to 
inquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go 
to the seer ; for he that is now called a Prophet was 
beforetime called a Seer" And as Saul went, he in- 
quired where the seer's house was. When he arrived, 
he asked, " Is the seer here ? " And when he had 
found him, Samuel said to him, U I am the seer." 
While, in some of the prophets, we are told of wick- 
edly disposed persons, who " say to the seers, see not ! 
and to the prophets, prophesy not ! " They did not 
want to hear of heavenly things. Such is the con- 
stant representation of Scripture. 

Another striking instance is found in the 6th chap- 
ter of 2d Kings, where the Syrian army had come 
down against Dothan, where the prophet Elisha was, 
to take him prisoner : " And when the servant of 



SEERSHIP, OR THE SIGHT OPENED. 29 

the man of God had risen early and gone forth, be- 
hold a host encompassed the city, both with horses 
and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, 
my master, how shall we do ? And he answered, 
Fear not, for they that be with us are more than 
they which be with them. And Elisha prayed, and 
said, Lord, I pray thee open his eyes that he may see. 
And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man ; 
and he saw : and behold the mountain was full of 
horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." 

That was the angelic host, the heavenly host, en- 
camped round about the man of God to deliver him. 
They were invisible to men in their ordinary states 
of vision. They were invisible at first to the young 
man of the prophet ; but as soon as the eyes of his 
spiritual body were opened, his sight became clearer 
and more intense. He could then discover things 
which were concealed from his outward, material 
organs. For the time, he became a seer, as Elisha 
was. How full the Bible is of these things ! I 
should only cause impatience by citations in confir- 
mation, from the angels seen by Abraham and Lot 
to the closing pages of the Book of Revelation. The 
testimony is manifold, constant, uniform, throughout 
the whole history of divine revelation, from begin- 
ning to end. 

And sometimes these senses are opened in persons 
who have finished their course here, and are about 
to pass away. Just as the spirit is leaving the body, 
persons will make exclamations, or give other signs 
that they have caught a glimpse of scenes that are 



30 SEEKSHIP, OR THE SIGHT OPENED. 

not visible to those about theui ; withdrawing their 
sight from earth, and having their attention fixed 
towards heaven. How frequently do we read or 
hear of such instances. 

Elisha's young man did not have to be transported 
to a great distance through space to have those things 
shown him ; the ancient prophets did not have to be 
so transported ; nor did John, in the Isle of Patmos, 
have to be so carried in order to have heaven opened 
to him. They each stood still in their places, and 
saw all by having the inward eyes opened within 
themselves. 

All these things show us that the other world is 
not far away, but is only a higher and purer state of 
existence, distributed all about us, and covered from 
our sight now only by the veil of flesh which hangs 
down over our eyes. 

With these view^s, then, of the vastness, perma- 
nency, living reality, and constant nearness of the 
eternal world, we will pass forward ; adding only the 
thought, that knowledge concerning that world and 
its laws is not only in itself the most interesting that 
can engage our attention, but also of the very high- 
est kind, and the most useful that men can study or 
know. 



THE RISING INTO THE OTHER WORLD. 31 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE RISING INTO THE OTHER WORLD. 

11 And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An 
old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul 
perceived that it was Samuel." — 1 Sam. xxvhi. 14. 



Two of our previous chapters have presented a few 
general ideas about the spiritual world. We have 
considered its vastness, the immensity of its numbers, 
its reality, its permanency, and its constant near- 
ness to our world. 

We purpose now to present some other of its 
features. There are abundant reasons why our 
thoughts should frequently ascend into that world ; 
why, at appropriate times, our minds should dwell 
on it, and why our sympathies and feelings should 
flow out a good deal towards it; and foremost 
among these, is the fact that we all have friends 
there, who remember, and hence who are think- 
ing of us. The recent population of our city is 
there; — the friends and acquaintances with whom 
we formerly mingled, and who have gone forth 



32 THE RISING INTO THE OTHER WORLD. 

from us within the last ten or fifteen years, or, later, 
within the last year, month, and even the past 
week. When we think of them we have not lost 
our interest in them, nor have they by any means 
lost their interest in us. All are partakers of this 
experience in some degree, while we who have 
passed a little beyond middle age, have a majority 
of our friends and relatives already there. Every 
single family is represented there ; for every family 
circle has been broken ; some of its members, going 
forward before the others, have changed their re- 
sidence, and been transferred from this world to 
that. In some, grand-parents and parents have 
gone. In others, relatives not quite so near. In 
some, a husband or a wdfe ; in others, children of 
different and of all ages, even to the little infant 
whose stay among us seemed only long enough to 
call forth our affections, and develop the love of the 
family circle towards it. All these have gone, and 
carried a portion of our affections along with them. 
And these successive departures of those to whom 
we are strongly attached in sympathy and in love 
are some of the means which the Lord in His pro- 
vidence makes use of to lift up our minds, and by 
degrees transfer our hearts from the persons and 
things of this world to the persons and things of the 
eternal world. 

Another point of interest which that world should 
have for us, arises from the fact that it is to be our 
own everlasting home. This furnishes abundant 
reason why we should inquire concerning it with the 



THE RISING INTO THE OTHER WORLD. 33 

most studious interest. If any place in the natural 
world was soon to become our permanent residence, 
we should at once begin to inquire about it, gather- 
ing all the information we could ; and should imme- 
diately have our eyes turned thither, taking a deep 
interest in its circumstances, and in all that con- 
cerned it, and this, when our stay in it, in the nature 
of things, can at most be but a very few years; 
how much more, then, in that community where we 
are to abide forever ! Shall we not inquire and 
search for knowledge concerning it, when we are 
constantly told by the Lord in His Word, that our 
lives here are, or ought to be, a wise and constant 
preparation for that world ? 

The question comes, when is the resurrection? 
When and where does it take place? When does 
man arise, and ascend into the spiritual world? 

We answer, immediately after death. There is 
no protracted sleep of the spirit. As soon as the 
outward body is off, and fairly cast aside, the man 
gradually opens his eyes upon the scenes of the other 
world, recovers by degrees his consciousness of 
thought, and at length rises, entering into life and 
mingling with the inhabitants there. 

Resurrection does not mean something to occur 
only at the end of the world, or thousands of years 
hence, — but, as we have said, comes to every individ- 
ual at his own decease, or departure out of this 
world. To us, to whom it has not occurred, it 
is, of course, a future event; it always remains 
future to the generation abiding here, and in this 

2* 



34: THE RISING INTO THE OTHER WORLD. 

world must always be spoken of as future. But 
every one passes through it as soon as he departs 
hence. 

The resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ, is stated by the Apostle to be a type and 
earnest of the resurrection of us all, a proof that 
the dead are raised, and a ground for our belief and 
hope that we, too, shall be raised in like manner. 
And this is the application and use which the Chris- 
tian Church has made of that fact in all ages. But 
our Lord was raised on the third day ; He did not 
wait till the end of the world. The crucifixion 
occurred on a Friday afternoon, and early on the 
following Sunday morning, a company of angels was 
seen around the tomb, and they gave the information 
that He had already risen, and was with them in 
their world. He soon appeared, too, to the women 
and to the other disciples. He became visible to 
them in His glorified body by an opening of their 
spiritual eyes, as we plainly read in Luke xxiv. 31, 
where it is said that, as he brake bread in their com- 
pany, " their eyes were opened and they knew him." 

Now, if our Lord's resurrection is a type of ours, 
(and from the Scripture we know that it is), then our 
resurrection occurs on or about the third day after 
the decease of the mortal part, as soon as the 
spirit has had time to be entirely withdrawn fi-om its 
former body, and the mind has recovered its wonted 
action. 

So the prophet Hosea, in the 6th chapter, speak- 
ing of this subject, in a passage that has been gene- 



THE RISING INTO THE OTHER WORLD. 35 

rally overlooked, says distinctly — first referring to the 
dissolution which the Lord works upon our mortal 
frames through disease, causing death — 

" He hath torn, [but] He will heal us ; 
He hath smitten, [but] He will bind us up ; 
After two days will He revive us j 
In the third day He will raise us up ; 
And we shall live in His sight." 

What can be plainer than this ? Though our mortal 
frames are dissolved, and we are dead in the sight of 
men, yet " after two days He will revive us; on the 
third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in His 
sight, " and in the sight of angels, agreeably to our 
Lord's words already quoted, that " to Him all are 
living" 

Agreeably, too, to what the Apostle says, 2 Cor. v. 1 : 
?• For we know that if our earthly house of this 
tabernacle [i. e., our body] were dissolved, we have 
a building of God, a house [i. e., a body] not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens*" 

The time of rising varies according to circum- 
stances. With many the time is shorter than the 
third day. The nature of the disease creates differ- 
ences. A violent death, like that on the field of 
battle, causes sometimes an almost instantaneous 
entrance into the other world. Samuel told Saul 
that he and his sons would be raised the very next 
day. (1 Sam. xxviii. 19.) 

We see, then, not only that man rises almost 
immediately on the decease of the mortal body, but 



36 THE RISING INTO THE OTHER WORLD. 

also that he rises in a body, and is in a distinct and 
complete human form as he was before. It is not a 
material body, like that which he wore here in the 
world, but what in Scripture is called a spiritual body, 
or the body of the spirit ; one that is not mortal— 
not subject to decay — not visible to mortal eyes — 
eternal and fitted for the heavens ; and therefore 
called also by Paul the celestial body. 

Now that body in which man lives forever, is not 
a case or covering, as it were, into which the soul is 
put after being freed from the physical body ; as any 
one may see, that would be a most unnatural and un- 
likely proceeding, — but it is the very living form in 
which we all now are. It is the living human form, 
which now vitalizes the physical body, giving it not 
only life and animation, but also imparting to it 
sensation and feeling. This inner body dwells every- 
where, in every minute portion of the outer body. 
It is what gives the form to the man here, using the 
particles of matter as its covering or clothing. 

We are apt, unless we seriously reflect, to do most 
of our thinking and employ most of our expressions 
under a set of fallacious appearances. If we put 
forth the hand and touch an object, we say that the 
skin feels it. And physiologists perhaps may tell 
you that the sense of touch resides in the skin. It 
would be more correct to say that it resides within 
the skin ; for the skin itself cannot feel, as is perfect- 
ly and easily demonstrable. Take away the man, — ■ 
let the man depart out of a material body, and then 
try it, and see whether it can feel ; — or whether it 



THE RISING INTO THE OTHER WORLD. 37 

have any other kind of sensation left in it. The skin 
is all there in the dead body, every whit, as it was 
before. But the sense and perception of touch is 
totally gone ; the man took that all away with him 
when lie went. 

And the moment w r e take a piece of skin, and 
come to analyze it chemically, the reason of all this 
becomes obvious at once. There is nothing really 
vital in it ; nothing capable of perceiving or feeling. 
It is composed of a little carbon, the same substance 
we burn in our stoves as coal, mixed with a little 
oxygen, and a little hydrogen gas. What is there in 
either of these substances that can exercise sensation 
or feeling ? Certainly nothing. It is the finger of 
the spiritual body that feels, through the covering of 
the other ; just as a man may continue to feel, though 
less distinctly, with his hand still further covered— 
with a glove. 

It is the same with the other senses. It is not the 
convex lens, nor the crystalline humor, nor the cor- 
rugated retina of the eye that sees. The material 
part of the eye is only an instrument, like a spy-glass, 
which the real man within uses to direct his vision. 
All the seeing in every case is done by the spiritual 
eye behind the other. Take that away, and all the 
seeing ceases. You may throw light into the mate- 
rial organ, but it will be in vain, there will be " no 
speculation in those eyes ; " you might as well 
direct the light into a cast-off opera-glass. 

It is so with the hearing, and with every vital 
function of every portion of the human frame ; all 



38 THE RISING INTO THE OTHER WORLD. 

the vital powers, forces, and operations belong to the 
spiritual body, residing and inhering in that ; con- 
stantly moving and changing the particles of the 
material body according to its uses and needs ; wrap- 
ping itself in it, while here on earth, as a man wraps 
himself in a garment. 

But as soon as, either from old age or disease, 
this outward body becomes incapable of performing 
the functions expected of it, the spiritual body then 
casts it off, and the man rises forth, in freedom, into 
the greater light and clearness of the spiritual world, 
as a bird rises forth out of the egg when the shell 
is broken ; or, to use the analogy of the apostle in 
1 Cor. xv., as the stalk of grain rises out of the very 
core and centre of a kernel of seed-corn, when that 
is cast into the ground, so the spiritual body of man 
rises forth out of the material body. 

From this point we can see and appreciate the 
truth of all the corresponding representations made in 
Scripture. The spirit is always in a perfect human 
form. It has every sensation and every faculty it 
ever had here. The man sees, hears, feels, walks, and 
converses as before ; has all thought and intelligence 
he ever exercised, with memory, desires, will. In 
short, he leaves nothing behind him which consti- 
tuted any portion of his vitality before. The laying 
aside of the mortal body changes him no more, in 
respect to his qualities as a man, than the laying 
aside of an overcoat, or the cutting of his hair and 
the paring of his nails did while in this world. 

Hence, all the angels that have ever been seen 



THE RISING INTO THE OTHER WORLD. 39 

had perfect human forms. So like in aspect are they, 
and in every feature, that at first they are always 
mistaken by the beholders for men, and are al- 
most uniformly called men in the sacred narra- 
tives. This is a fact of Scripture usage which has 
been generally overlooked, in its bearing on this sub- 
ject, 

When the three angels came to Abraham, at his 
tent door, it is said that " he lifted up his eyes and 
looked, and, lo, three men stood by him." 

When the two angels went down into Sodom to 
find Lot and to save him from the coming destruc- 
tion, he received them, invited them to his house, 
and entertained them as two men. And when the 
angel of the Lord appeared to Joshua at his first 
entrance into the land of Canaan, it is related in 
these words : " And it came to pass when Joshua 
was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, 
and, behold, there, stood a man over against Mm 
with his sword drawn in his hand : and Joshua 
went unto him and said unto him, Art thou for us, 
or for our adversaries ? And he said, Nay, but as 
captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. 
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did 
worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord 
unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's 
host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy 
foot ; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. 
And Joshua did so." (Josh. v. 13.) 

This is so in every case. Indeed, when we come 
to reflect, we cannot well conceive of a human spirit 



40 THE RISING INTO THE OTHER WORLD. 

as being in any other form. It would be painful to 
try to think of them in any other. 

From this we see, that, after having once put off 
the material body, men never come back to it any 
more. There is no need of it. It would be to 
retrograde. It would be for the great laws and 
processes of life and growth, and immortality, to 
reverse themselves, and turn backwards. They, as 
spirits, have far better bodies than we have, — even 
those which are not liable to be destroyed by disease, 
or to decay from old age. It would be an immense 
disadvantage to them ever to come back to a material 
or physical body. Nor do they ever again become 
visible to the outward or merely natural eye. 

Following the Scripture narratives throughout, it 
is remarkable with what distinctness and constancy 
they all assert the same thing. Not only are angels 
described as being in all cases in perfect human 
forms, but so like their former appearance while on 
earth as to be readily recognized by those who had 
known them here. Remember the ancient prophet 
who talked with John in the vision, and then think 
of all those vast multitudes which John saw so 
distinctly, clothed in white robes, worshipping before 
the throne. They had had their resurrection, and 
were then living and acting in that world as they 
are going to live forever. 

We are taught in the Doctrines of the New Jerusa- 
lem Church, that when a person enters the spiritual 
world, he carries with him the aspect which he wore 
before departing, so that in all respects he looks 



THE RISING INTO THE OTHER WORLD. 41 

exactly like himself. If he were aged when he de- 
parted, he appears aged there, when he first enters, 
and for a period afterwards. The same if he were 
middle-aged. The distinction of sex likewise re- 
mains; a man being still a man, and a woman a 
woman. So they who pass in infancy, enter as in- 
fants, remaining so for a time, but gradually growing 
to maturity, as they would have done if they had 
remained here. 

Thus it will be seen that we give the same answers 
to questions like these that are given them in the 
Scriptures, and that these doctrines are, in fact, noth- 
ing else than an opening of the true and real meaning 
of Scripture, from beginning to end. 

If it be asked, as the apostle says it was asked in 
his day, How are the dead raised, and with what 
body do they come? we answer, as he did, that they 
are raised at once, and in spiritual bodies, rising forth 
out of their material bodies as the stalk of new grain 
rises out of the old seed. 

And when the question is asked which Saul asked, 
What form is he of? or, as it is in the Hebrew, " What 
is his form ? " we answer, as Saul was answered, " A 
man cometh up." It is the human form. And in 
Saul's case it was an old man. And his person was 
' so described to him that Saul immediately knew that 
it was Samuel. Thus we see that when Samuel was 
seen in the spiritual world, not a great while after 
his decease, he still wore so nearly the aspect he had 
borne in the world as to be recognized at once, even 
from a description of his person. 



42 " SHEOL." 



CHAPTER V. 



"SHEOL" AN INTERMEDIATE WORLD OF SPIRITS, 
NEITHER HEAVEN NOR HELL. 

"I will go down into Sheol unto my son mourning." — Jacob, in 

GrEN. XXXVII. 35. 



We come now to another department of our sub- 
ject. Some questions naturally arise in the intelli- 
gent mind with respect to that state of existence. 
Where does the departing spirit find himself when he 
thus arises into another life? Into what kind of a 
world, or into what part of that world, does he first 
go ? And by whom is he surrounded ? 

In the writings of our Church we are taught that 
he enters what is called, to distinguish it, the " World 
of Spirits." It is not heaven, nor is it hell ; but a 
province, or a region of the spiritual world interme- 
diate between them. It is important to understand 
the characteristics of that region, and to know some- 
thing about it ; for it sometimes has great multitudes 
of human beings sojourning in it, and it performs a 
very vital function in the spiritual and historical 
economies of the universe. In it good spirits and 



" SHEOL." 43 

evil spirits are still mingled together, somewhat as 
good men and bad men are mingled in the commu- 
nities of this world. Into it all men first go on their 
departure from our world, and remain there for 
longer or shorter periods. In it judgment is effected ; 
for there, by degrees, a separation takes place be- 
tween the evil and the good ; the evil being drawn 
away to their various abodes apart, while the good, 
being gathered into congregations for the purpose, 
are there instructed and prepared for heaven. 

The heavens are above that region, being higher or 
more elevated than it, while the hells, or the com- 
munities of the evil, are below it, being in a lower 
or more degraded portion of the spiritual world. 
"Without taking that middle region into view in our 
thought, and knowing some of the work that is done 
there, we shall not be able to understand much that 
ought to be understood in theology and concerning 
religion. We shall be unable to unravel many things 
which at first sight appear inconsistent in the system 
of future rewards and punishments set forth in the 
Bible. A large part of the Scripture itself will have 
for us no definite or adequate meaning ; while much 
of the work which our Lord and Saviour performed 
while in the wwld, for the redemption and salvation 
of our race, w r e shall lose sight of entirely. 

I desire more particularly to call attention to 
this subject, and invite a candid consideration of the 
evidences of the existence of that intermediate region, 
because most of us have been educated to think oth- 
erwise. The common method of New England 



44 " SHEOL." 

teaching lias been adverse to it, pushing it out of 
view, or covering it over and avoiding reference to 
it, until it has come to be thought a heresy, or al- 
most a heresy, to believe it. But from what I shall 
endeavor to bring forward, I hope to be able to 
show that a belief in it is so far from being a heresy, 
that those only will be found in heresy to true Chris- 
tian doctrine who overlook or deny it. 

In the first place, it is the constant teaching of Sa- 
cred Scripture. It is only from the want of a correct 
translation that it does not appear, as plain as day, 
in the letter of our common Bibles. The word by 
which it is denoted in the Hebrew of the Old Testa- 
ment is sheol — a word which is variously rendered 
in our English version. Most frequently it is trans- 
lated hell, or the place of everlasting punishment, the 
final abode of the wicked. Sometimes it is called the 
pit / at others, the grave. But, as is well known to 
scholars, none of these are adequate or even proper 
translations. Sheol does not mean pit or grave; 
there are other well-known words in Hebrew for 
both those objects. It means simply the world of 
departed spirits, the place into which all souls go at 
the decease of the mortal body, and where both good 
and evil are more or less contiguous to each other. 
This is its uniform application ; it has no other sense 
or meaning. That our translators well knew that it 
does not mean the grave or tomb is very clear from 
the fact that they usually translate it hell, the abode 
of living spirits and the last home of the wicked. 

But that it does not mean the last home of the 



" SHEOL." 45 

evil you will see from the fact that all men alike 
went to it, the good as well as the evil. Every one 
who died — patriarchs*, kings, and prophets — went to- 
gether into sheol, and were always regarded by the 
Jews as living there together. Every Jew, however 
good he was — however consistent his life had been in 
conforming to the Law of God — expected to go to 
sheol when he died, and to find his friends there. 

As a single instance, we will take the words of Ja- 
cob (Gen. xxxvii. 35). They were uttered when the 
blood-stained garment of his son Joseph was brought 
to him, and he supposed that he had just been de- 
voured by a wild beast : " And all his sons and all 
his daughters rose up to comfort him : but he refused 
to be comforted ; and he said, For I will go into sheol 
unto my son, mourning. Thus his father wept for 
him.' 5 

Now, could it have been into hell, do you think, 
that Jacob spoke of Joseph as having gone, and into 
which he himself expected to follow him, — even seem- 
ing desirous to go ? No ; of course not any of us can 
suppose that. Nor did the translators of our Bible 
suppose it, for when they came to this passage they 
suddenly forebore from their common practice of 
calling sheol hell, and translated it grave, making 
Jacob say that he would go down into the grave unto 
his son, something which he did not say. He said 
he would go to sheol, the place of departed spirits ; 
the place where the Jewish Church was taught and 
believed that all the dead were gone ; the place into 
which Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph went, where 



46 " SHE0L." 

Aaron, Joshua, David, Solomon, with all the judges, 
kings, prophets, and worthies of their church w r ere 
gathered together ; the place understood by His 
hearers to be referred to by our Lord, in the Gospel, 
w T here He says, with reference to Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, — that " God is a God of the living, for to him 
all are living" 

Now, that word occurs in the Old Testament 
sixty-five times ; and hence if it were properly 
translated, we should have this world of spirits, of 
which we have been speaking, and concerning which 
we are taught so much in the writings of the New 
Church, — mentioned directly by name no less than 
sixty-five times, in the Old Testament alone. And 
in confirmation of this mode of translating we have 
the authority and practice of the Septuagint version, 
a translation of the* Old Testament made before the 
beginning of the Christian era, and well known to 
embody the learning and ability of that age. Those 
translators always call sheol the world of departed 
spirits, rendering it by the Greek term hades, a w r ord 
meaning, as all Greek scholars are aware, the place 
of the departed, whither all go at death, — the good 
and the evil alike. And when we call to mind that 
our Lord and his disciples made constant use of that 
version, and that all the quotations from the Old Tes- 
tament found in the apostolical writings are made 
from it, we have the highest authority for believing 
that that translation is a good one. 

Besides being so many times mentioned by name 
in the Old Testament, the world of spirits is also fre- 



" DTTT'AT " 



SHEOL." 47 

quently referred to there incidentally without being 
named ; and in some of these its existence is as clearly 
taught, or set forth by inevitable inference, as though 
it were actually named. We could easily and profit- 
ably occupy two or three chapters in considering 
these evidences in the Old Testament alone, but we 
must be content now with adducing a single one. This 
is afforded us in the 28th chapter of the first book 
of Samuel. 

Saul, perplexed to know what he should do, be- 
thought him that if he could only obtain an inter- 
view with Samuel, whom he had been in the habit of 
consulting as prophet w T hile he lived here, — that Sam- 
uel might unveil to him something of the future, or 
tell him what to do, and so relieve him of his anxiety. 
So he went by night to the Witch of Endor, a per- 
son who had familiar spirits, and by unlawful means 
opened communications with the spiritual world. 
This was strictly forbidden, for it is always unlaw- 
ful, contrary to divine order, and even dangerous 
for any one to seek of themselves to open the door 
between the two w T orlds, or to come into sensible com- 
munication with spirits. So Saul disguised himself 
and went by night. To his first inquiry, the woman 
said that she saw gods — that is, spirits — ascending 
as if out of the earth. And when he inquired as to 
his appearance, she said, " An old man cometh up, 
and he is covered with a mantle : " — precisely as he had 
appeared in life ; and Saul knew that it was Samuel 
from the description which she gave. Saul did not 
see the form of Samuel, but he heard him speak, 



48 " SHEOL." 

and one of the things which Samuel said to Saul is 
this : — " And to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons he 
with me" 

It is not too much to say that this passage is too 
generally read without stopping to consider its 
meaning, or to get an intelligent idea of what it 
necessarily implies and involves. A great deal is 
taught in it. Saul was to be killed next day (as he 
was) in the battle. And where was he to go ? Was 
he to descend into the grave and be shut up there in 
a state of unconsciousness or sleep, or be annihilated % 
Not so ; he was to go immediately, the very next day, 
into the same world that Samuel was in, — Samuel 
— who stood there alive, in full human form, con- 
versing with him. "Well what part of the spiritual 
world was that, that Samuel was then in % Was it 
heaven ? A good many may be disposed to think 
that Samuel would be taken up immediately to 
heaven. But would Saul be taken up there ? Saul 
and his sons, wicked men, who lost their lives on 
account of their persistent rebellion against the 
word of the Lord, — where would they go ? Many, 
not well informed on the subject, might think that 
such persons would go immediately to hell. Such 
is not what Samuel the prophet says, however. 
He says that they should ha with him, where he 
was. 

The very day after their decease, Saul and his 
sons, wicked men, were to arise and appear alive in 
the very world, and in the very part of the spiritual 
world, into which Samuel, a good man, a holy pro- 



" SHE0L." 49 

phet, and a servant of the Lord, had already arisen, 
and was then living. 

What, then, is the inevitable inference? Why, of 
course, there can be but one conclusion. They all 
went to the common receptacle of souls, where all are 
together until judgment is effected, and the good 
separated from the evil ; neither heaven nor hell, but 
a world of spirits, intermediate between them. This, 
too, is the testimony of Josephus, in reference to this 
account, and such is the repeated, uniform, constant 
teaching of the Old Testament. 



50 HADES. 



CHAPTER YI. 



HADES [SHEOL] A WORLD OE SPIRITS BETWEEN HEAVEN 
AND HELL. 

" For David is not ascended into the heavens." — Acts n. 34. 



On passing, next, to the New Testament, we 
observe something of a change. It is the common 
impression of the Christian world that, in accord- 
ance with the declaration of the Apostle, in the Gos- 
pel, life and immortality are brought to light, and 
that declaration applies very fully to that part of 
the subject we are now treating. There is greater 
clearness about it, than in the Old Testament. The 
three great departments of the spiritual world are 
here marked off with greater precision and distinct- 
ness ; each being called by its appropriate name. 

There is hades , called so in the Greek, the world 
of departed spirits, the part of the spiritual world in 
closest contact with this world ; supposed to be, and 
by correspondence represented to be, on a level with 
our earth, — into which all souls go at death; the 
part of the spiritual world most frequently becoming 
visible to men who had their spiritual eyes open ; 



HADES. 51 

the part from which the possessions by unclean 
spirits came, and from which the temptations of our 
Lord proceeded; the part in which our Lord 
sojourned forty days, from the time of His resurrec- 
tion until His ascension into heaven ; the part 
where He said He would receive the repentant thief 
on the cross, and the part where He went and 
preached to the spirits who, as Peter says, had been 
shut up in Hades since the time of Noah ; the 
part, too, in which the Apostle John saw a large 
portion of the scenes described in the book of Reve- 
lation. And it was in that part, also, in which the 
rich man was, when, beginning to feel the torment 
of his own evils, he lifted up his eyes and saw 
Lazarus, happy and peaceful, in Abraham's bosom. 

This region is mentioned by its own distinctive 
name at least thirteen times in the New Testament, 
while it is taught by inevitable inference and inci- 
dental allusion probably more than one hundred times. 

Next, there is the region above hades / the abode 
of the good, the home of angels, the principal seat 
of the Divine Kingdom, called ouvanos in the Greek, 
and shummayim in Hebrew, Heaven, about which 
there is no dispute. 

And lastly, there is the region below hades ; called 
in the Psalms, the lowest sheol, and in Isaiah denoted 
by tophet ; denominated in the New Testament 
Greek, gehenna, in our version of the Bible,and in all 
others, I believe, always rendered hell, the place into 
which the rejected go, the home of the devils, and 
the final abode of the wicked, called also the lake 



52 HADES. 

of fire, and the bottomless pit, and once, by the 
Apostle Peter, named Tartaros, in which he 
employed the corresponding term from the Latin. 
This region, besides being mentioned by its own dis- 
tinctive names some eighteen or twenty times, is also 
frequently referred to by incidental allusion. 

We have, then, as the result of ojur inquiries, that 
in the New Testament Scriptures, these three regions 
or grand divisions of the spiritual world are marked 
off and as clearly distinguished from each other, as, 
in our school geographies the three distant conti- 
nents, Europe, Asia, and Africa. 

We could give many illustrations of this, if time 
permitted. We could easily, and usefully, occupy a 
chapter or two with them. 

We will, however, stop here only to mention two or 
three instances of that kind of allusion to hades, this 
intermediate region, which we have spoken of as 
teaching it by inevitable inference. 

The first of these that we shall bring, is our Lord's 
well-known parable of the tares and the wheat. The 
point of the parable, as you will remember, is this : — 
that the wheat and the tares were not to be hastily 
separated from each other. That they were to remain 
together, mingled, and grow together until the har- 
vest, when they were to be separated, and each ap- 
pointed to its appropriate destiny. And in the ex- 
planation of the parable which our Lord gave to his 
disciples, He says distinctly what He means, viz., that 
the harvest is the end of the world, or end of the 
dispensation, the time of his second coming and the 



HADES. 53 

time of the Last Judgment, That until then, the 
good and the evil are to go on together, but that when 
that time arrives, He will send his angels forth, and 
they shall gather the evil from among the just, — 
gathering the wheat, or the just, into his garner above, 
but letting tares go " with the chaff, into the lake 
which burneth with fire unquenchable." 

Undoubtedly each of you has read this parable at 
least one hundred times. But did you ever stop to 
ask yourselves the question, where it was that this 
waiting is to take place ? Where did the good and 
evil remain and grow together for all that long period 
included between the first coming and the second 
coining of the Lord?— 1,700 or 1,800 years? The 
separation was not to come till the end, — till the 
judgment. "Where can they have been staying to- 
gether all this time, then ? They have not been 
waiting in this world, the world of men. No one 
stays here longer than the appointed time, — fifty, 
seventy, or one hundred years. Good and evil both 
finish up their period here and pass on together into 
the other world. More than fifty generations of men 
have lived on this globe and passed away from it 
since our Saviour uttered those .words. Where is it 
that these multitudes have been waiting in the mean- 
time for the judgment to take place ? Have they all 
been in heaven ? Do wheat and tares live and thrive 
together there ? Or, have they all been in the 
lower regions of the spiritual world ? Is any of the 
wheat suffered to go and make a prolonged stay in 
the final abode of the wicked ? Surely none of us 



54 HADES. 

will be ready, nor do the Scriptures allow us, to say 
either of these things. 

What is the inference, then, to which we are shut 
up as a conclusion in this case ? Why, to this clear- 
ly, that there must be some third region of the spir- 
itual world, which is neither heaven nor hell, in which 
the good and the evil stay, and where at length the 
judgment takes place. 

Another instance of the same kind is contained in 
the sermon, or discourse of the Apostle Peter on the 
day of Pentecost, given in the 2d chapter of Acts. 
After enumerating some of the prophecies and facts 
connected with the resurrection of our Lord, and 
referring once to David, he then distinctly states 
(verse 34) that " David is not yet ascended into the 
heavens." That, too, I suppose, is a statement which 
most persons read without reflecting on its import, 
or getting the idea which it implies. If David had 
not yet ascended into heaven in the days of our Lord 
and his apostles, where was he ? He disappeared 
from this world about one thousand years before the 
day of Pentecost. Where had he been staying all 
that time ? In what part of the spiritual world had 
he been living ? The apostle says distinctly that he 
had not been in heaven ; and I presume none will 
desire to place the " man after God's own heart " in 
the lower regions — in Tophet or in Tartaros — for all 
that time. 

Now, as all may see, this is a question which will 
not be pushed aside ; it must be met, and we see 
as clearly that there is but one answer that can ra- 



HADES. 55 

tionally be given to it. He must necessarily have 
been living in some third region of the spiritual 
world which is not the final abode of the evil or of 
the good. Peter and his hearers without doubt be- 
lieved him to be then in hades, and to have been 
there the whole of the intervening period. 

Let us read now the opening passage of the 20th 
chapter of the Book of Revelation : " And I saw 
an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the 
bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he 
laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, the devil, 
and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast 
him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and 
set a seal upon him." 

These words afford another illustration of the sub- 
ject we are treating ; that is, they introduce us, in 
the most distinct manner, to hades, the intermediate 
world of the departed — as, indeed, does the entire 
chapter. That part of the spiritual world, besides 
being here brought before us in full view, is twice 
mentioned in the chapter, by its own proper name, 
as being the region in which all the scene here de- 
scribed is said to be transacting. 

I suppose we have all read this passage before, a 
great many times, as we do many others, without re- 
flecting much on its import, or getting a full idea of 
what its statements really imply. Let us call to mind 
the circumstances in which these words were spoken. 
There stood the Apostle John, " in the spirit," see- 
ing as to his spirit, in a state of holy vision, with his 
spiritual senses opened, looking out into the other 



56 HADES. 

world, witnessing occurrences taking place there. 
How do we know that he was not then looking into 
heaven nor into hell, but into a middle region in that 
world which is between them ? We answer, because 
the passage itself distinctly declares it. Let us read 
it again : " And I saw an angel come down from 
heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a 
great chain in his hand." We see at once that the 
angel could not then have been in heaven, for John 
distinctly declares that he had just come down out 
of heaven. Heaven was above them both, as they 
two stood there, the one beholding the other. 

How do we know that the scene which the apostle 
then saw enacted was not in hell either ? We answer 
again, because the declaration is equally clear with 
respect to that point. It says that the angel laid 
hold on the dragon, bound him with his chain, and 
— what did he do with him? Did he leave him 
there, in that part of the spiritual world in which 
the angel was then standing, and into which John 
was looking? No, obviously not. He cast him 
forth out of that world down into another, which was 
beneath or below them, even into " the bottomless 
pit," in other words, into Gehenna or hell, the lake 
of fire. 

Here, then, we have that middle world of the de- 
parted set before us, in the letter of the Word of 
God, as plainly as it is possible to describe any- 
thing in the world, and, in accordance with what 
we have already mentioned, that that region is con- 
stantly represented as being on a general level with 



HADES. 57 

our earth, in close contact with it, and readily visible 
from it, as soon as any one's spiritual sight is opened 
to behold such objects. 

But further on in the chapter it is again plainly 
declared in what part of the spiritual world John 
saw all those things done which are related in this 
portion of his vision. It is said that they were in 
hades. In the 13th verse, as it is translated in our 
common Bible, we read : " And death and hell de- 
livered up the dead which were in them, and they 
were judged, every man, according to their works." 
But in the priginal Greek there is no such declara- 
tion. It does not there say that hell gave up its 
dead to be judged. There is no such declaration 
made in any part of Scripture. There is not a sen- 
tence, or part of a sentence, from the beginning to 
the end of the Bible, that declares, or implies, or in 
any way allows to be inferred, that any one, after 
having once, of his own accord, gone into hell, is 
ever called back again to be judged. Where would 
be the rationality of such a proceeding? Where 
would be the use of such a return ? In that case, 
every result of a judgment is already over with him ; 
there is nothing more to be done or attained ; and 
we may be sure that in those great general and mer 
ciful laws by which the Creator arranges the affairs 
of the universe, nothing is required or done for the 
sake of formality, for we may add that those laws 
are wise and economic also. 

Neither is there any intimation given in Scripture, 
nor does it seem to be suggested by sound reason, 

3* 



58 HADES. 

that any one, after having worked his way through 
the trials, temptations, and tribulations of this world, 
and, coming out right and true, has been elevated 
into heaven, and commenced his abode there, should 
be brought back at some future time, to stand trial 
again, and go through the process of being judged. 
A right understanding of Sacred Scripture and of the 
true geography and processes of the spiritual world, 
dissipates such fallacies or obscurities of view at once, 
bringing out a different class of facts. 

In the original it reads, " and death and hades de- 
livered up the dead which were in them. 55 The de- 
ceased who were still living in hades were those who 
were judged ; none others. Xone who were in the 
lake of fire were called back. JSTone who were in 
heaven were called down. 

This general idea is still further illustrated in the 
14th verse, w 7 here we read : — " And death and hell 
were cast into the lake of fire : this is the second 
death." The impropriety of this translation may be 
seen from the circumstance that it affirms hell to have 
been cast into the lake of fire ; thus making the 
Scripture to say that hell was cast into hell ; a mani- 
fest incongruity. 

In the original, of course, it is " death and hades " 
that were so cast down ; that is, the evil in hades ; 
those who, as it says, were subjects of the second 
death. Dead, not only as to their mortal bodies, but 
also spiritually dead; — as the apostle expresses it, 
dead in trespasses and sins ; dead as to any vital spark 
of heavenly life ; with souls dead as to goodness. 



HADES. 59 

Thus, the more this 20th chapter is read with 
care, as well as all the other parts of the book of 
Revelation in which the judgment is set forth, re- 
membering the condition in which John was when he 
saw it all, the clearer will it become to every eye, 
that the judgment goes on in hades, the middle 
world of the departed, for heaven is constantly repre- 
sented as being above it, while Gehenna is as con- 
stantly represented as being below it. 

In inviting attention to the doctrines of the New 
Jerusalem Church, and consent and adhesion to its 
principles, we do, as we believe, with respect to the 
Word of God, simply what the geologist does with 
respect to the physical earth, and what the astrono- 
mer does with respect to the sky, — open the hidden 
truths it contains, inviting to a more careful study of 
its pages, to a more intelligent understanding of its 
teachings, and a better apprehension of the inex- 
haustible treasures of wisdom, and heavenly knowl- 
edge stored away within it. Every doctrine of the 
New Jerusalem is a genuine truth, growing immedi- 
ately out of the eternal realities of the universe. 



60 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 



CHAPTER YII. 

THE JUDGMENT IS 1ST THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

" It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." 
— Heb. ix. 27. 



After what has now been adduced on this topic 
from the Sacred Scripture, is it surprising that we 
find a belief in that intermediate world so general in 
the Jewish Church, and universal in the primitive 
Christian Church ? The idea was thoroughly im- 
pressed on all their thinking. Not one of the early- 
Fathers whose writings have come down to us has 
called the doctrine in question or undertaken to 
deny it. And even the heathen world had preserved 
in their traditions from the ancient revelation a 
very similar conception. 

In addition to the concurrent testimony of so many 
ages, let us appeal, too, to some of the rational con- 
siderations in its favor. Let us call to mind the uses 
of such an intermediate world, and the very necessary 
functions it performs in the grand spiritual distribu- 
tions of the universe. As we turn the subject over 
in our minds and look at it on its various sides, does 



• THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 61 

it not seem, after all, as though some such intermediate 
region is absolutely required in the nature of things 
to fulfil the wants of the universe ? Must not there 
be provided some place where all these things in re- 
lation to the departed can have their occurrence; 
where they are judged ; where the good are sepa- 
rated from the evil, and where they are afterwards 
instructed and led towards heaven. 

It does not take place here, in the world of men. 
It never will take place here ; it is useless to expect 
it ; it is contrary to the uniform testimony of Scrip- 
ture, as, in part, we have seen. But, in addition, Paul 
distinctly tells us that it is appointed unto all men 
once to die, and after that the judgment. How 
plain that is ! No man comes to judgment until 
his mortal part is put off; and then it comes in that 
world into which he has gone as to his spirit. How 
useless, then, to look for it as an event to occur in this 
world, or, a great day that is to burn up the material 
earth, or be visible in any way to mortal eyes ? It 
is not an event belonging to this world at all, and 
all such general conflagration, or great visible de- 
monstration, will be looked for in vain. 

Again, consider for a moment the general condi- 
tion in which men are when they leave this world. 
Think of their mixed characters and partially de- 
veloped states. What a variety of moral and intel- 
lectual attainment ! What different degrees of moral 
and spiritual elevation, and, too, of mental, moral 
and spiritual degradation ! 

Now set up in your minds the heavenly standard 



62 THE JUDGMENT IS EST THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

of life and character, as that is revealed to us in the 
Bible, and as our rational intelligence must paint it to 
us, and then pass out into the community around us, 
and see how many you think come up to it. How 
many are ready for that kind of life now ? How 
many when they depart out of this world are fit 
companions for angels, ready to associate with them 
on equal terms in their communities ? How many, 
do you think, are wise enough and good enough to 
go at once to heaven and become citizens of that 
holy city into which " there in nowise entereth any- 
thing that defileth, or worketh abomination, or 
maketh a lie ? " 

The further you extend the search out into 
the world's great populations, visiting the larger 
cities, and calling to mind the partially Christianized 
regions of the globe, the more painful and apparent 
will the discrepancy between the standard and the 
actual attainment become. How few there seem to 
be, comparatively, who have formed just conceptions, 
or who have a realizing sense of the character they 
need to form, or of the kind of men and women they 
must actually become in order to enter heaven ! 

And, yet, what are you going to do with all these 
populations? A large proportion are not essentially 
bad men. Place them in good moral and religious 
circumstances and they will be willing to obey the 
laws and lead tolerably orderly and useful lives, and 
so, be willing to grow better. As they are, they have 
suffered from many impediments. Some have been 
reared in ignorance, surrounded by evil influences ; 



THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 63 

others, in want. Some are in bondage, or under 
oppression. Millions have never even heard of the 
Gospel, and have scarcely any notion of the true way 
of salvation, while multitudes who have heard, have 
never come to definite or clear ideas of what they 
ought to do, or how they ought to live. 

Some there are undoubtedly, and have been in 
all ages, — so we are taught in the doctrines of 
our Church, — of lives so pure and aspirations so 
devout, as to be well prepared for heavenly society 
when they enter the other world, and such are 
detained in hades but a very little while. After a 
short stay, and a little preparation, they are taken 
up and enter the communities of the blest. 

So, again, as we are taught and as common obser- 
vation extensively confirms, there are some men so 
bad before they leave this world, so bent on doing 
evil and infringing on the rights of the neighbor, as 
to have acquired in the popular phraseology the 
name which we apply to residents of the pit, and 
whom all good citizens would be very glad to see be- 
take themselves away, and go to dwell by themselves 
in a community apart. This is what actually oc- 
curs in the other life. The openly and manifestly 
wicked go at once, or very soon, to the abode towards 
which they tend,— in the lower regions of that world ; 
staying in the world of spirits but a very short 
time. But then the question remains in regard 
to the other ; the great multitude who belong to 
neither of these extremes. If you should go to some 
great metropolis, — New York for instance, with a 



64 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

population of 1,000,000 souls — and were gifted with 
angelic perceptions, so as to be able to select the diffe- 
rent classes, and, like the two angels going into Sod- 
om, could lead out the genuine servants of the Lord, 
after taking 50,000 persons as an estimate of their 
number, and 50,000 on the other hand, as the number 
of the extremely bad, you still have 900,000 left 
who need to have something done for them, — to 
have some new developments take place in them 
in order to fit them properly either for heavenly, 
or for the opposite kind of society. 

Is it not so ? If the appeal were to be made to us 
individually to-night, should we be ready at a day's 
notice, should we be willing, left in perfect free- 
dom, to assume to-morrow the duties and responsi- 
bilities of heavenly society ? Should we be willing 
or ready to join a community and begin at once to 
live in it whose rules required us to forget self, and 
our selfish interests, to love our neighbor exactly as well 
as ourselves, to love our enemies, and to do good to 
those who despitefully use us ? Are we ready ? For 
one, I am free to say that I should desire for a time 
first to enjoy the light of heavenly instruction, and a 
leading and training in goodness by the help of 
angels, and with their examples before me, and I 
am thankful, a thousand times, that such a place is 
provided of the Divine Mercy, where all this can be 
done ; where the ignorant can be instructed, where 
the weak can be strengthened, where the unjustly 
bound can be liberated, where the infirm can be 
healed, where the downtrodden can be lifted up, 



THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 65 

wl^ere the well-disposed of every clime, age, and 
degree, can be helped forward on their way, and 
where the good can be further enlightened and puri- 
fied, even the Paradise of God in hades, the place 
into which our Saviour said he would receive the re- 
pentant thief on the cross, and the place elsewhere 
called, by figure, Abraham's bosom, in which Lazarus 
was. Paradise does not mean heaven. It is a figura- 
tive expression, borrowed from the Garden of Eden. 
And the Garden of Eden was not heaven, but a 
place meant by Divine Mercy for the residence of 
good men ; a place where they would prepa/re for 
heaven. So it is applied in the Scriptures, as the 
name of that place in the intermediate world in which 
the good are instructed and prepared for heaven. 

It is in just such mental conditions — just such 
spiritual states as we are in to-day, as the population 
of our city is in — that men are called away, and are 
constantly leaving for the other world. Think of the 
amount of preparation which the average have 
when they go, and is it not clear that the judgment, 
separation, and final disposal of the world's masses, 
as they flock forward into the other world, cannot be 
the work of a moment, or of a day, or of a year ? 
What discrimination, and what a sifting of character 
must go on before even the good and the bad can all 
be separated from each other ! 

Thus we see in what conditions the multitudes of 
men pass on towards the judgment. 

The laws of the spiritual world are in many 
respects the laws of this world. The mind is essen- 



66 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

tially the same in both worlds. Hence, by a careful 
observation and analysis, we can discover these laws 
in their beginnings and tendencies — in their rudi- 
mentary forms, — at work in human society here, 
and in the light of what is plainly written in Scrip- 
ture on the subject, we can get a clear view of the 
principles which there continue to operate. 

The human spirit is always left free, free in its 
choices, free in respect to the thoughts it will harbor 
and the dispositions it will cherish, though not free 
always with respect to the exent it can realize these 
in act, free as to the ends of life it will pursue and 
the character it will form to itself. Hence the 
actual process of judgment in the other world is 
different from what some have imagined it to be ; 
quite different. It is the simple separation of one 
class of people from among another, of wheat from 
tares, of sheep from goats, and their gathering into 
communities apart. 

The Scriptures, as we all know, and as is well un- 
derstood, speak of many things connected with the 
judgment, in strongly figurative language, using, 
to describe it, the common imagery of prophetic 
symbolism, and by a careful study of that symbol- 
ism the principles of the judgment may be clearly 
deduced. They are intended to set forth the impor- 
tance and certainty of it, and the majesty of the Divine 
Truth by which it is effected, but do not imply the 
presence of a visible throne, or the personal appear- 
ing of the Lord in order to execute it. The Lord is 
spiritually present in and by His word, and by His 



THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 67 

truth. And He himself says in the Gospel, " /judge 
no man, for every man hath one which judgeth him, 
even the word that I have spoken (the Divine truth), 
it shall judge him at the last day." — (John xii. 48.) 

It is the truth that judges — that effects a separa- 
tion between the different classes of men. As it is 
said, they are judged out of those things which are 
written in the \Books. Books of two kinds are here 
meant. First, there is the one Great Book, the Book 
of Life, which is the Sacred Scripture, the Word of 
God, the Book of Divine Truth. This contains the 
standard by which they are judged. Then, there 
are the other books. The record of each one's indi- 
vidual life, inscribed on his own memory, and carried 
with him in his own spiritual organization wherever 
he goes. It is by these that the judgment goes on. 
It is a little remarkable, and a fact w T ell worthy of 
note, that in every reference made to the final award 
after death, works only are spoken of. 

The judgment is always said to be according to 
the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or 
evil. No other criterion is ever held up. And this 
is frequently repeated; in the Gospels and in the 
Epistles, and" in the Bevelation. No other standard 
of judging a man finally than "according as his 
work shall be" is ever once raised in the Scripture. 
Now this is very instructive, teaching us that every- 
thing is dependent upon the quality of the lives we 
lead here, — on the disposition and bent of character 
which is thus formed. 

The actual freedom in which every one is allowed 



68 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

to take his own direction in the other life, and 
pursue his own way to the final abode to which his 
ruling impulses carry him, may be illustrated by the 
arrival of a steamship loaded with passengers, at one 
of our seaports in this world. The Great Eastern, 
for instance, arrives in the city of New York, with 
10,000 people on board, persons removing from the 
Old World to the New. They are made up of every 
possible variety. They come from many different 
climes and nations ; speak different languages, and 
have different objects in view. Every individual of 
the crowd, indeed, will have some distinct purpose of 
his own, different from all the rest. 

Those people, as soon as they land, come under 
the laws of the United States, and our Government 
has appointed commissioners of immigration to super- 
intend their reception ; to preserve order ; to take 
charge of those who are unable to provide for or 
take care of themselves; to give information to those 
who require it respecting the country, the routes of 
travel, and the means of reaching the different points 
of destination ; to protect them from the imposition 
of sharpers, and afford them shelter and a staying 
place until they are ready to proceed on their way. 
They require them to conform to certain rules for 
the order and convenience of all, but they do not 
molest them in the pursuit of their final purpose. 
Every one enjoys his freedom in that. 

And so, after the lapse of a brief period — longer or 
shorter, according to circumstances — we shall find 
the ship's whole company dispersed and disposed of. 



THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 69 

By various routes they will be on their ways to their 
manifold destinations. Some will have gone directly 
to a home that was near ; others will be pursuing a 
journey of greater length ; while each one of the 
whole will have sought some kind of company or 
companionship most congenial to himself, and most 
consonant to the business upon which he had come. 

The foreign ambassador and the seeker of political 
knowledge will have gone to the Capitol at Washing- 
ton. The broker, who came to inquire as to the 
value of American securities, would find it in Wall 
street. The purchaser of our domestic manufactures 
would seek the market where they are to be found. 
The agricultural immigrant will be seeking the lands 
of the far West. The philanthropic explorer would 
have inquired out and made the acquaintance of some 
of those American philanthropists whose names he 
had heard. The preacher of religion would natu- 
rally have sought those here of his own denomina- 
tion. While those who, coming from similar haunts 
of wickedness in the Old World, had crossed the 
ocean for the purpose of trying their skill in picking 
the pockets of our countrymen, in counterfeiting our 
currency, or in committing burglaries in our moneyed 
institutions and houses, would in a similar manner 
have sought their congenial companionship, and 
found, or be on the way to find, the places where 
they could practise their nefarious arts. So that at 
length the whole, acting in freedom, will have scat- 
tered, and been distributed to almost as many different 
points as there are individuals composing the crowd. 



70 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

[Now, something not very unlike this is constantly 
going on at the entrance into the eternal world. The 
great company that is arriving there is like the dis- 
charging of a mighty ship. The population of the 
globe has of late years so increased that the emigra- 
tion from this world to that has already become 
immense. A number nearly equal to all the people 
at present in New England and New York com- 
bined have gone, since the commencement of our 
war, from this country alone, equal to seven States 
of our Union ; and from the whole world it amounts 
to 100,000 a day ; 4,000 an hour. Pour thousand 
persons have arrived on the shores of the other world 
since you, reader, sat down over the pages of this 
book. 

Well, how are those people received there ? We 
answer, they are received by angels, sent forth for 
the purpose. The Lord says that He will send forth 
His angels, and they shall gather His elect from the 
four winds, from one end under heaven to another. 
And we know, from nearly all the passages that 
speak of it, that angels are the agents by which the 
Lord executes this work, as they are the agents He 
employs in so many others of His beneficent opera- 
tions. They are the heavenly commissioners having 
charge of this great tide of emigrating spirits arriving 
in their world ; and they take care of them in a not 
very dissimilar way. Those commissioners, however, 
are endowed with heavenly love and heavenly wis- 
dom. They receive all kindly when they arrive. 
Of themselves, they turn away from none. If any 



THE JUDGMENT IS EN* THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 71 

turn away from tJiem, it is from a desire to reject 
their offices. Hence the angels do not leave even an 
evil spirit, but the evil spirit goes away and leaves 
them. 

The office of the angels is to seek out and gather 
the good, all the well-disposed, and render them 
assistance ; rescue them from the frauds of wicked- 
ly disposed spirits, protect them on their way, and 
point them forward in the right direction. And 
those angels are gifted with such perception of char- 
acter, that they can tell in a very short time whether 
one speaks the language of Canaan, or whether his 
words tell of a speech which is foreign to their 
heavenly world, as readily as one of our commission- 
ers could tell whether an immigrant spoke Eng- 
lish, or could utter himself only in some foreign 
tongue. 

Those angels are endowed with power to execute 
their office. The laws of the heavenly kingdom 
prevail in the world of spirits so far as to maintain 
order and preserve the equal rights of all. Thus 
they hind Satan while he is in that intermediate 
world, and he is not allowed to act himself out till 
he gets to his own abode. But the angels never in- 
terfere with the final purpose of any. All are per- 
mitted to enter, and all receive good treatment after 
they have entered. And then, as soon as they desire 
it, the different classes are allowed to seek such 
companionship as they inwardly desire to associate 
with. 

While some, as we have seen, are quite ready to 



72 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

go to one extreme region or the other, the great 
multitude are not. They must have time to show 
themselves out. The hidden parts of their characters 
will have to be brought to the surface, and hence 
for this more time is required. The great mass 
passes on to temporary homes in the world of spirits. 
And so in process of time great communities accu- 
mulate there, in which good people who are not very 
good, and bad people who are not very bad, or who 
are not openly and manifestly bad, live mingled to- 
gether. 

But they cannot always live thus ; the time comes 
when they must separate. And how is this effected ? 
How shall this mixed multitude be called to judg- 
ment, and the judgment executed, and yet all left 
in perfect freedom to do as they choose ? The pro- 
cess is simple, though at first sight it might appear 
difficult. It is done merely by the preaching of the 
angels. It will be remembered by all that one of 
the prominent features of the judgment, as described 
in the Bible, is the blowing of the trumpets ; one 
prophet says that in that day, the Great Trumpet 
shall be blown. Our Lord says, that then the angels 
shall be sent forth with the great voice or sound of 
trumpets ; and in the Revelation, where the actual 
occurrences are set forth, the constant accompani- 
ment is the sounding of the angels with their trum- 
pets. In chapter after chapter, we behold this kept 
up ; the seven angels with the seven trumpets, and 
as they sounded the judgment went on. 

Now, every one in any degree familiar with the 



th£ judgment is in the world of spirits. 73 

common works on prophecy, is aware of the meaning 
of this figure. As is well understood, it is typical 
of the promulgation of the truth — of the proclama- 
tion of the Gospel. To Mow a trumpet is to pro- 
claim the truth — preach it, m.ake it known. Hence, 
this is precisely what the angels go about, and what 
they continue to do in those communities. How 
could they do otherwise? How could they help 
proclaiming and making known the heavenly truths 
which constitute their own intelligence, and in which 
their own hearts are so warmly engaged. 

And that is all they need to do in order to cause a 
judgment, and bring about a separation of the good 
from the evil. They would then by degrees divide 
of their own accord. Those who believe the truth 
and love it, receive it and confess it, and openly ad- 
here to it. And this is what every one who is good 
at heart actually does in the other world; while 
the evil do not receive it. It does not aid them in 
carrying out their bad purposes of life ; they have no 
use for it ; some do not believe it, — at least they do 
not love it, and so they turn away from and leave it ; 
rejecting, and generally opposing it. Hence we see, 
at once, that two parties are thus created, and spirits 
are free to arrange themselves with either of them. 
Thus they separate. 

We see the truth performing similar operations 
in this world. Strong propositions, affecting vital 
human interests, produce similar results when thrown 
in upon communities in our world. Thus, at the 
time of the Eeformation, when the appeal was made 

4 



74 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

to the Sacred Scripture, the receivers of the Bible 
and its testimony split off from the adherents of 
the Papacy and its traditions. 

And so we see moral and spiritual truths constant- 
ly performing a certain process of judgment in all 
the communities of our world, creating a species 
of separation between those who favor them, and 
those who do not. Silently and unostentatiously 
arranging the good on one side, and the evil on the 
other, by allowing every person, in perfect freedom, 
to take sides, arranging himself with good men or 
with evil men, on the side of the truth or against 
it. 

What we see going on silently and imperfectly 
in our communities here, is what goes on more dis- 
tinctly, more manifestly, and more perfectly there, 
until the entire result sought for is accomplished, 
until all the good are entirely separated from all the 
evil ; and, the good being gathered out and led off in 
one direction by themselves, a distance is interposed, 
a great gulf fixed, so that the evil can no more 
molest, while the evil are then left to themselves, 
to pursue their own ways of life, following them out 
to their natural results. They then plunge into such 
self-indulgences as they severally delight in, which 
is signified by their being cast into the lake of fire, 
or as it is called in the original Greek—" the gehenna 
of fire " — the hell of fire. Well, what is meant by 
fire in the prophetic language of Scripture? Of 
what is visible, material fire the constant type and 
symbol in the Bible ? Why, the vital spark in man, 



as every one is well aware who is even partially 
acquainted with Scripture usage; the flame that 
animates his life and warms his heart. It ought to 
be neighborly affection, heavenly love, as it is when 
he receives the baptism of fire by the Holy Spirit. 
But when the man is evil, it is then the zeal of bad pro- 
pensities, the flame of passion, lust, appetite. When 
man is selfish and perversely disposed — when his heart 
is set on evil things, then, as expressed in the prophet, 
" Wickedness burnetii as afire, and the people become 
as fuel for the fire / no man spareth his brother." 

Hence that region of the spiritual world in 
which none but the evil dwell — where only men of 
bad dispositions and bad passions are found — is 
called " the lake of fire" The angels cast no one 
into that lake of fire ; the evil spirit casts himself 
in. Do not bad men here cast themselves down into 
that degraded state of feeling and habit which con- 
stitutes their wickedness, and which burns in their 
own hearts ? 

And so, too, the angels punish no one. The Lord 
punishes none. The heavenly commissioners lay 
positive inflictions upon no one. Do we not read 
that it is "evil" which "slays the wicked?" And 
do we not see that wickedness brings its own pun- 
ishment ? All wrong-doing and all sinful feeling, by 
its own nature, carries with it a certain miserable 
state of mind and life ; and that miserable state, 
joined to the annoyances of the bad company with 
which it associates, is its own punishment ; some- 
thing from which it can never be delivered. In order 



76 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

to be delivered from it, we must, while here, form 
better states, come up out of those dispositions and 
propensities, and, in obedience to divine command- 
ments and the holy precepts of the Gospel, live 
according to good thoughts and in the exercise of 
right feelings. 

The only restraint put upon the evil in those lower 
regions is one of mercy, to prevent their injuring, 
and inflicting too much punishment upon each other. 
That the divine power and the administration of the 
angels extends to those regions is seen in the fact that 
the angel seen by John cast Satan into the pit bound, 
and shut him up, and set a seal upon him — acts which 
represent the exercise of power still over those thus 
enclosed. Hence they are bound by laws which re- 
strain the too violent bursting forth of their evils ; as 
in this world we place under martial law those dis- 
tricts which are in insurrection, or whose inhabitants 
are not willingly obedient to good order and law. 

It must not be inferred from what we have said 
of the freedom and gradual development of the other 
life, that that, too, is another state of probation like 
the present ; that that is a world for repentance 
and regeneration ; that one who has pursued an 
evil course here can turn round and pursue a good 
course there. Such is not the fact, A man's per- 
manent quality is inwardly fixed here. "As the 
tree falleth, so it lieth." As a man is when he leaves 
the body, so he remaineth. Such is the nature of 
the human mind, that, at that stage of his existence, 
a man does not choose to change what has then 



THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 77 

become the confirmed habit of his life, and so in- 
wrought into the texture of his spiritual constitution. 
The direction is taken here. The seed is planted 
and the germ started here ; what it does there is to 
branch forth, and bear its legitimate fruits. 

With what satisfaction of mind we can now turn 
our eyes, and follow, in the light of Sacred Scrip- 
ture, the company of the good who have been thus 
separated, as, conducted by angels, they pursue their 
happy way to the place of instruction ! What a 
prospect of blessings opens before them, and what a 
glorious and useful future beckons them on ! Sepa- 
rated from the evil ! Do we realize the full meaning 
of that? That very fact brings them nearer to 
heaven, and heaven nearer to them, with all dis- 
turbing influences removed, the exciters of disorder 
and the doers of wrong taken away, with nothing 
left but to learn further what is right, and perfect 
freedom to do it, with no other work to occupy 
their minds but that of usefulness and improvement, 
with all the means afforded them for the highest 
and best culture of head and heart, for the acquisi- 
tion of the largest stores of knowledge, for the culti- 
vation of the brightest intelligence, and for the ex- 
ercise of the widest philanthropy and the most 
exalted wisdom. Can the contemplation of the 
circumstances of any community be more inspiring 
or elevating than this? Let us all resolve and 
persevere to lead such lives while here, that we, 
too, may join them, and make progress with them 
when we go there. 



78 THE HISTORY OF HADES. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE HISTORY OF HADES. 

" And he opened the bottomless pit : and there arose a smoke out 
of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air 
were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit." — Rev. ix. 2. 



What a desire there has always existed in the 
Christian Church to understand the Book of Reve- 
lation ! — to acquire some definite knowledge of the 
meaning of its successive visions. 

This it is not difficult to do. Only take the right 
stand-point, and the book will unfold to you its mean- 
ing as readily as any other part of the Scriptures. 
That stand-point is found in Hades, the middle world 
of the departed, which we have already endeavored 
to place before you, with some degree of fulness and 
distinctness of view. 

All we have to do, is simply to take the book as 
it says, itself, and then follow it out. The Apostle 
tells us over and over again, that what he saw and 
heard was seen and heard in the other world, the 
spiritual world, and not in this world, the world of 
men. He says, too, that by far the larger portion 



THE HISTORY OF HADES. 79 

4 

of it was seen in hades, the middle region of that 
world, and neither in heaven nor in hell. And we 
see from the character of the scenes described that 
such indeed must have been the case. 

In this idea, then, we have the key of the book ; 
we can now read it in a new and clear light. 

What, then, do we find as the leading characteris- 
tic of this book, as we turn its successive pages, with 
this thought in mind, remembering that what it 
describes are vast movements going on in the inter- 
mediate world of spirits % What is the great, promi- 
nent fact constantly set forth ? Why, clearly, it is 
this, — that that is the world through which spiritual 
influences are transmitted to- men. This is the one 
great idea of the book. Open almost any chapter 
you please and examine, and this will be found to be 
the burden of the vision. That is the world through 
which spiritual influences of both kinds, good and 
evil, are spread out, flowing on and operating, until 
they finally take effect upon the minds of men here 
in the world, and human society is affected and 
moved by them. 

You who are readers of it, call to mind the various 
chapters, and you will remember. 

In its pages we always have, — either, on the one 
hand, " heaven opened," and from it descending, the 
Lord and His angels, with divine and heavenly truths 
and all holy and benign influences, producing with 
them salutary effects on the well-disposed in hades, 
and through them affecting favorably the minds of 
men on the earth, turning them to good ; — or, on 



80 THE HISTORY OF HADES. 

the other hand, we have the pit opened, and noxious 
influences arising from that, flowing forth into the 
world of spirits, inciting the bad populations there 
to activity, and, through them, operating unfavorably 
and deleteriously upon men here in this world. 

This is the programme, and the key of the book. 
As soon as perceived and rightly understood, the 
machinery of the other world is here laid open to 
us, especially of that middle region from which we, 
men, receive all our influences. 

How clearly this idea is carried out in the chap- 
ter from which our motto is taken ! First, the bottom- 
less pit opened, and a great smoke issuing from it, 
darkening the air and the sun (the malarious influ- 
ences of the kingdom of darkness), these influences 
setting in motion the unpropitious multitudes of 
that invisible world, and they, going forth with a 
fiery zeal of wickedness, running everywhere through 
that world to spread the infection to men. Read 
any chapter in which the darker scenes are pre- 
sented, and you will find this to be the law of the 
movement. In the 16th chapter it says : " And I 
saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the 
mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the 
beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 
For they are the spirits of devils working wonderful 
things, which go forth unto the kings of the earth 
and of the whole world, to gather them to the 
battle of the great day of God Almighty." Those 
emissaries of the pit are bent on making converts. 
And so they ply men everywhere, with their persua- 



THE HISTORY OF HADES. 81 

sions, and tlieir unclean incitements, by flowing into 
their minds secretly with their influences ; striving 
to gain adherents, so that when these same men put 
off the mortal body and go into their world, they 
may draw them over to their side, and strengthen 
their party for the great battle, — the battle of Ar- 
mageddon—that is constantly going on in their world ; 
the battle between light and darkness, between 
right and wrong, between good and evil. And it is 
sorrowful to behold with what facility they are able 
to recruit their army with ready volunteers from 
every portion of our visible world ! 

It is noteworthy to observe -with what constancy 
in these accounts, these bad influences issuing from 
the pit keep on in their course until they have 
succeeded in influencing the action of men here, 
producing bad results in our world. Here is where 
they strive to produce their effects. Thus it is said, 
that they should " hurt men" that " they should have 
power to take peace from the earth " — and to cause 
that men " should kill one another." In one place 
it is averred that " by them a third part of men were 
killed ; " while it is represented throughout that in 
and through these influences all kinds of plagues and 
torments descend to and take effect upon men. 

And is it not all true ? Is it not one of the most 
manifest things in the world, that on account of these 
bad influences issuing from the pit, actuating spirits 
in the world of spirits, and thence entering into the 
hearts of men, being willingly received by them, 
our world has become a theatre on which plagues 

4* 



82 THE HISTORY OF HADES. 

and evils of all kinds have been and 'are displayed? 
Have they not induced men to kill one another, — 
taking peace from the earth, — and to inflict all other 
possible injuries upon each other ? What has sin 
and unholy passion not done? And what plague, 
or disease, or affliction is there which they have 
not brought upon mankind, destroying soul and 
body? 

But, as we have said, these are not the only in- 
fluences displayed in this inspired Book. The 
forc^ of heaven are seen at work on the other side. 
The Lord and His angels are as active and powerful 
in shedding forth good influences, and producing 
good results. Interspersed between these dark 
chapters all along, there is given another series in 
which are described scenes and operations of a pure 
and heavenly order. Light flows down to scatter 
the darkness. The powers of evil are resisted and 
overthrown. The armies of heaven go forth upon 
white horses following their leader, the Captain of 
our salvation. Good spirits are rescued, standing 
with the Saviour upon the Mount Zion of the 
spiritual world. True witnesses, apparently dead, 
are restored to life, while captive souls, in prison 
under the altar, are liberated from their bondage. 
And these influences flow on, too, until some good 
final results are effected in our visible world, until 
the New Jerusalem descends ; — until the tabernacle 
of God comes down to be with men, until the 
children of the heavenly Father are left in perfect 
freedom to love and serve Him. — and until peace, 



THE HISTORY OF HADES. 83 

order, and righteousness of life, are instituted as the 
sure and prevalent state of human society. 

Now, what is clearer than this general picture set 
forth in this book ? and what is more conformable 
to sound reason than the laws of human existence 
thus laid bare to our view ? 

Why should not the populations of that interve- 
ning world have a powerful influence upon us, and 
sensibly affect for good or for evil the conditions of 
human society? We have already alluded to the 
nearness of that world to this, and this is a general 
fact well worth remembering. The association is 
internal, mental, and therefore very close, We 
think we have very near neighbors, when their houses 
join up against ours. But the dwellings of the spir- 
itual world not only join our houses, but some of 
their inmates are even inmates of ours, at the same 
time. Such must be the case with those few with 
whom we are in most intimate communion. Our 
Lord says that a man's foes are they of his own 
household, and we can plainly see that it is so. A 
man's irost dangerous enemies are those invisible 
spirits of evil which gain access to him by means of 
the bad things to which he is inclined, and whom he 
draws into close association with himself every time 
he indulges them. And so, Paul, to the Ephesians, 
speaking of the Christian's warfare, says : " Put on 
the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to 
stand against the wiles of the Devil. For we wrestle 
not against flesh and blood (i.e., men in mortal bod- 
ies), but against the principalities and powers, the 



84: THE HISTORY OF HADES. 

rulers (or authors) of the darkness of this world, — 
against wicked spirits in high places ; " while the 
Apostle James says that u the tongues of the wicked 
are set on fire of hell." And such is the constant 
representation of Scripture. 

So, too, the good influences are as near us, ready 
to come at our call, whenever our hearts are right, 
when we invoke their aid, and are ready to cherish 
right thoughts and holy affections. " The Angel of 
the Lord encampeth around them that fear Him, and 
delivereth them." The angels are " all ministering 
spirits, sent forth to minister to those who shall be 
heirs of salvation." The Lord is also ever ready to 
communicate the influences of His holy spirit. 

We see contiguous populations situated in this 
world affect each other for good or for evil. The 
state of thought and feeling in Boston and Phila- 
delphia influences New York; the influence of 
New York reaches the w^hole country; the East 
acts upon the West; the West reacts upon the 
East. How deeply movements and opinion in 
Europe affect us on this side !— and, in turn, how 
forcibly we react upon them ! Ever since the 
days of our revolution there has gone forth from 
the opinions and institutions of this country, a 
moral power that has pervaded the nations like 
an atmosphere, working constant changes towards 
freedom and amelioration. This has not been the 
exertion of outward force, but the silent operation of 
ideas, — the latent power of one volume of mind to 
influence and affect another volume of mind. So, 



THE HISTORY OF HADES. 85 

throughout the world's history, have human commu- 
nities acted and reacted thus upon each other, the 
whole helping the earth's progress to be wrought 
out. 

Why, then, should not the communities of that 
world affect powerfully the communities living in 
this ? They are nearer to us than the communities 
of this world are to each other. Those from whom 
we receive immediately our influences are nearer to 
us than the people of Boston. The connections by 
which they communicate with us were complete be- 
fore the Atlantic Cable was laid, while there is no 
storm so violent as to throw down the posts or impede 
the electricity of those wires. 

Think of the thousand ways in which the various 
atmospheres of the spiritual world must be constantly 
working through into this ! — through every chink 
and cranny that is opened, into every phase of 
thought or mood of feeling, insinuating, percolating, 
sifting through. 

We have already referred to the vast numbers of 
that world, — but think of it once again, in connec- 
tion with this special subject. When great commu- 
nities act, they act with great power. And wher- 
ever the Bible opens those communities to us, it 
shows them to be immense ; — great, multitudinous 
concourses. We think of thirty, forty, or fifty mil- 
lions of people in this world, as a large population • 
sometimes saying that they constitute a mighty 
empire. But what should we say to some of the 
empires of that world, where not merely one gene- 



86 THE HISTORY OF HADES. 

ration of men are living, but where a number of succes- 
sive generations are often collected together ? Think 
of the mass of men — spirits which, in the sixteenth 
verse (Rev. ix.) the Apostle says he saw moving in one 
body ! — " And the number of the army of the horse- 
men was two hundred thousand thousand. And I 
heard the number of them. And thus I saw the 
horses in the vision, and them that sat on them." 
How distinct and emphatic ! And he was com- 
manded to write what he saw and heard in a book, 
for that the words were true and faithful, being the 
true sayings of God, two hundred chiliads of chil- 
iads ! as it is in the Greek, — in other words, two hun- 
dred millions of men ! Such are the concourses 
both of good and evil which the Scriptures constantly 
represent as constituting the communities of that 
world! With what immense power, then, those 
communities must act ! — especially when under any 
strong excitement of thought and feeling ! On sober 
reflection, in rational light, it will be seen that many of 
the extraordinary and unaccountable fervors, enthusi- 
asms, and excitements that have now and then broken 
out in this world, the causes of which nobody could 
trace, must have been stimulated into action and 
in part produced by influences flowing in from the 
other world, and must, therefore, have been more 
or less connected with events of a somewhat similar 
character occurring there. We may justly infer 
that all the great popular excitements occurring in 
this world are intensified by the influences flowing 
in from that world, — having their fires increased, as 



THE HISTORY OF HADES. 87 

it were, by the flowing in of their invisible atmos- 
pheres. 

In our late struggle there must have been intense 
feeling in some part of the world of spirits in relation 
to what was going on. Our citizens who had de- 
parted from 1840 to 1860 were living there. Mr. 
Calhoun was there. Mr. "Webster and Mr. Clay 
were there, with their associates and colaborers of 
the preceding twenty and thirty years. Can we sup- 
pose these men to have lost their interest in causes 
for which they had so zealously labored, and in affairs 
amidst which they had spent the active portion of 
their lives ? Certainly we cannot. And we may be 
sure that the interest and anxiety felt in our commu- 
nities here were increased, were stimulated and aid- 
ed, by the mental magnetism existing and flowing in 
from there. 

What, then, is the general truth at w T hich we have 
at length arrived? What new elevation have we 
reached from which to contemplate the events of the 
world's history? Can we not, from the point on 
which we now stand, look back over the ages, view- 
ing them with a new interest and in a new light ? 
What, then, do we behold, struggling along down 
the great pathway of the generations ? Not one line 
only — not simply the visible men and women who 
have acted their successive parts upon the earth's 
surface and then passed away — but, too, close beside 
these, another population, equal in interest, vaster in 
numbers, more vigorous in action, more potent in in- 
fluences — the two moving along down the stream of 



88 THE HISTORY OF HADES. 

time together, bound in one compact, associated in 
the same general communion of mind, and, to a cer- 
tain extent, leading a common or mutually related 
life — the spiritual community all the time acting 
with vital power upon the earthly community, and 
the earthly community in turn reacting with con- 
siderable force upon that. 

Who will sum for us, then, in the light of a clear 
intelligence, the totality of the world's annals ? In 
what human book shall we read the true philosophy 
of history ? or what considerate thinker shall tell us 
that we have an adequate account of the earth's 
events, with the larger populations and the most po- 
tential factors in the results left out of view ? 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 89 



CHAPTER IX. 



HISTORY OP THE WORLD OF SPIRITS FROM ADAM TO 
CHRIST. 



Now, one great difference between the inspired 
histories of the Bible and ordinary histories lies in 
this, that the Bible does not leave those invisible 
populations out of view ; it always takes them into 
the account. All along down it has constant ref- 
erence and allusion to the presence of those spiritual 
communities and of their action upon us. The 
visions of the ancient prophets were all " openings " 
vouchsafed them through into the other world ; and 
many of the wonderful things beheld by them were 
seen by their getting a passing view of some of those 
inside communities. 

Another view opened to us by these descriptions 
of the Bible is, that those communities, like ours, are 
in motion. There is life and activity in them. 
They are not at a stand-still. They are not composed 
of drowsy, stagnant populations. There is movement 
and change of condition, and hence historical devel- 
opment and alteration among them. Recall for a 
moment the animated scenes described in the Book 



90 HISTORY OF THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

of Revelation. What a succession of vigorous enact- 
ments ! Every time the door is opened stupendous 
movements are seen to be on foot, equal to or sur- 
passing in interest and grandeur the most stirring 
periods in the annals of our own world ; and so, to 
a lesser extent, in other parts of the Bible. 

And why should it not be so ? The factors of 
history are all there. The great men of the past, the 
master-spirits of their several ages, have all had their 
day or period, too, in that intermediate world — 
Alexander the Great, Julius Csesar, Charlemagne, 
Hildebrand, Martin Luther, Napoleon, George 
Washington. And when men are out of the mate- 
rial body their faculties are not thereby diminished. 
If they are good and true men, moving in the right 
direction, all their mental perceptions and powers 
are increased and exalted, and therefore still more 
effective in action. 

On whatever side we turn it, then, we have this 
fact remaining : — that hades has been a stirring 
world from the beginning, having a most active his- 
tory of its own ; and, that the conditions and move- 
ments of that world have, all along down, powerfully 
influenced and affected the moral state and historical 
events of this world. 

When our world has been dark, degraded, and 
gloomy, that world, too, has been given over to evil 
and the smoke of the pit. 

But when the heavenly powers, reacting, have 
rescued that intermediate world from the grasp of the 
evil, the cloud has been lifted ; better influences have 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 91 

been poured into our world, and humanity has en- 
joyed brighter and more hopeful days. There have 
been some striking illustrations of this, in the past 
history of the world. 

In examining this general subject, did the question 
ever occur to you, — why is the great day prophesied 
by Daniel, referred to in the New Testament and 
described in some parts of the Revelation, called 
the last judgment ? If there were one great day, on 
w T hich everybody that had ever lived were to be col- 
lected into one mass, and the whole judged together, 
once and for all, why not call it simply the judgment 
day% That is sufficient. Why apply to it the term 
last, if it is the only one ? I will tell you one reason 
why that judgment is called the last. It is because 
it is not the first. There have been other judgments 
before it. More than once before, in the long and 
varied history of that world, has it been necessary 
for the Lord and His angels to descend into that 
middle region with renewed power, and, by causing 
a separation to take place between the good and the 
evil, effect a casting down of the evil, and so restore 
that world to a state of equilibrium and order. 

The constant tendency of evil, you know, is to- 
wards anarchy and misrule. If left to itself and 
allowed to have its own way, it would keep on, ar- 
rogating more and more power to itself, destroy free- 
dom, and trample on human rights of every kind and 
degree. This is its essential nature here, and still 
more emphatically so, when it comes into the freedom 
of the spiritual world, where by degrees it throws off 



92 HISTORY OF THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

its disguises. We see, then, at a glance, that when 
the population of our world has become very wicked, 
when most of those passing away by death go for- 
ward in an evil state, so that the tide of emigration 
pouring in there is a corrupt tide, the effects are 
very bad upon the state of that world. A corrupt, 
domineering, anarchic population rapidly accumu- 
lates there. And if many succeeding generations go 
on in the same way, the effects become all the more 
saddening and disastrous. For their corrupting in- 
fluences spread all around in that world and back into 
this. 

The heavenly Father is forbearing, and long-suf- 
fering. He always gives men freedom enough for 
every useful purpose, and he allows all a great deal 
of scope to act themselves out, both in this world and 
in that. But, nevertheless, He does retain the 
government of the universe. His superintending 
Providence reaches everywhere, and He exercises a 
controlling influence for good. He employs subor- 
dinate agencies to perform many portions of the work, 
but the oversight and the power emanate from and 
centre in Him. 

He suffers evil as long as it is bearable. And so 
He suffers those mixed and troublesome populations 
to accumulate in the World of Spirits for long peri- 
ods of time, providing methods by which they are 
retained in a certain degree of order, — allowing 
some of the wheat and the tares to remain there to- 
gether, as He himself says, from the end of one dis- 
pensation to the end of another. 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 93 

But the times come when they can be no longer 
restrained in freedom ; when their wickedness can 
no longer be endured, on account of threatening the 
safety of all the surrounding populations, in both 
worlds. And so, now and then, in the long reach 
of the ages, the Lord in His Providence interferes, — 
brings on a crisis, as it is called in the original 
Greek, — sends down the power of His truth so 
strongly into that world as to judge the state, en- 
lightening the eyes of the righteous, leading them 
forth from among the evil, — causing a separation. 
Thus, the disruption, and division of those communi- 
ties is effected ; as empires in this world are some- 
times overthrown and dissolved ; while the evil 
there flee away of their own accord, and betake 
themselves to those regions represented by the lake 
of fire. 

It has been necessary, as we have said, a nnmber 
of times in the world's history that Satan should be 
thus hound and shut up for a season. 

Yery similar principles of administration have 
come, too, under Divine Providence, to prevail in 
our world; good governments not unfrequently 
bear long with disobedience, opposition, and insubor- 
dination, until at length, when these have broken 
out into open violence, insurrection, and rebellion, 
then the strong arm of power is put forth to quell 
them, — to protect the weak, restore order, and banish 
the persistently evil to foreign parts. 

There are several of these great days of crisis ; of 
judgment and separation, mentioned in Scripture; 



94: HISTORY OF THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

or, as they are frequently called in the prophets, 
days of visitation and vengeance. They are named 
days of visitation, because, as we have seen, the 
angels go down and visit those communities at such 
times, searching out the good and leading them 
away from the coming destruction. The amount 
that is written on this subject in the Bible will be 
altogether surprising to those who have not paid par- 
ticular attention to it. 

The occurrence of those days, or crises, are what 
mark the changes of dispensation in our world. 
They always inaugurate a new era. They always 
terminate, or close up, one great period in the sacred 
history of the world, and begin another. They are 
accompanied by some great visible change in the 
divine economy with respect to the universal church. 
Thus, the antediluvian period was terminated - m by 
such a crisis. He who reads with penetrating eyes 
the remarkable account of the deluge given in 
Genesis, remembering that the whole is an inspired 
document, a communication coming to us from the 
invisible world, cannot fail to see, that while the 
outward action of the event has reference to our 
world, yet, that while descriptive of something occur- 
ring here, it has at the same time a very close connec- 
tion with something taking place in the other world. 

The more will this become obvious as we look to 
those passages in the prophets where the flood is 
spoken of as a past event. It is there called, a crisis, 
a day of visitation and of judgment. Is it not 
commonly understood, from the language of Scrip- 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 95 

ture in reference to it, as well as in the theological 
phrase of the Church, — to be a "judgmental — 
something visited upon the antediluvian world for 
its wickedness ; a crisis brought upon them on ac- 
count of their excessive depravity, and intended to 
bring it to an end ; — to break up that state of prev- 
alent wickedness and remove it? This, as all are 
familiarly aware, is uniformly the Scriptural allega- 
tion with respect to the nature, and divine purpose 
or intention, of that event,— a judgment upon the 
wicked antediluvians. 

But, where were the wicked antediluvians at the 
time when that event occurred ? Only a single genera- 
tion of them were present here in the natural world. 
By far the larger portion of them had already gone 
away and left it. At least nineteen-twentieths of 
those wicked people, and perhaps ninety -nine out of 
a hundred of them — all the generations since Adam, 
were living in Slteol, the world of spirits, — and there- 
fore, a judgment which should affect only the in- 
habitants of the visible world, would not reach 
them, nor produce any special result upon their 
state. We can see, then, that by confining the opera- 
tion of that judgment to its effects in our world 
only, we should defeat the main purpose the Lord is 
declared to have had in bringing it about, viz. : — to 
visit, and break up the den of wickedness that had 
thus been created. What good purpose would it 
have served, to have visited only our world, remov- 
ing a few millions from the mortal body, sending 
them forward in all their wickedness thus suddenly 



96 HISTORY OF THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

into the world of spirits, and still left that vaster 
multitude, twenty times as large, indefinitely more 
wicked, which had collected like a mighty social 
tumor in the intermediate world, and lay there, 
spreading its moral and spiritual gangrene all 
around ? That immense mass of corrupt mind, rest- 
ing down with its entire weight upon men, in close 
contact everywhere with their minds, and pressing 
in to be received, was the very seat of the disease. 
It was itself the chief cause of the intense accumula- 
tion of wickedness in this world. And, as may be 
readily perceived, our world could not have been 
permanently benefited, and the tide of corruption 
checked, unless a crisis had come there ; unless that 
mighty mass had been visited, removed, and dispersed. 

While, therefore, we believe that the event meant 
and typified by the flood, was an actual historical 
occurrence, coming in our world, affecting the 
bodies of men, and the conditions of human society 
here, — we believe, also, that by far the larger portion 
of the event, and its most important operations, took 
effect in that middle world, where by far the larger 
part of the men to be visited were then collected 
together, and where, consequently, the Scriptures 
continually assure us such events do occur. 

Again, at the close of the patriarchal dispensation, 
beginning with Noah and ending with Melchizedek, 
another of these judgments occurred, which, too, 
had its visible ultimate or effect in this world. 
After Abraham had been called, and a preparation 
thus begun for a new dispensation in the line of the 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 97 

Jewish Church, then, as we read, there came the de- 
struction of Sodom and Gomorrah. This, too, came, 
we are told, because in that region, in the five cities 
of the plain, the accumulated wickedness of the whole 
preceding period had culminated or come to its head. 
They were sinks of iniquity. And they had be- 
come so, because they were the earthly focus upon 
which rested the vast cloud of influences in the oth- 
er world. Nineteen -twentieths of the wicked Sod- 
omites and Gomorrahites were there in the world of 
spirits, still hanging about their old haunts, hover- 
ing immediately over the cities of the plain, a vast 
spiritual incubus, like some of those masses described 
in the book of Revelation. It was this larger body 
of evil which the Lord and His angels came down 
to judge on that occasion. And it was only because 
they afforded a basis and stronghold for that spir- 
itual multitude, that those visible cities had to be de- 
stroyed and their populations removed. We shall 
always find some general principle involved in every 
act of divine administration. In whatever is done, 
the conditions and requirements of both worlds are 
taken into the account. 

The spiritual eyes of Abraham were opened to see 
a little of these things. The Lord told him that the 
cry of Sodom had come up into heaven, the influence 
of its wickedness had become so great, that He must 
come down and visit it. And several of the angels 
who were sent down came to Abraham's tent door on 
their way. How many angels there were present in 
all we do not know, for we are not told. Their 

5 



98 HISTORY OF THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

numbers may have been very large. Only two of 
them became visible in the visible city of Sodom, and 
that was because they had a mission to perform there, 
in rescuing and leading out the family of Lot. That 
is always the law of the judgment. First, the good 
are searched out and led forth, and then the overthrow 
of the evil comes as a consequence — as a matter of 
course. Thus, as soon as the Lord had gathered Noah 
and his family and shut them in the ark, the flood of 
waters came and overwhelmed the others. And as 
soon as the angels had rescued Lot and his family, 
the fire came, destroying those cities. In like man- 
ner, in the spiritual world, when the angels have 
led forth all the good they can find in one of those 
mixed communities, the judgment or dispersion 
comes at once. 

It is on this account that our Lord uses the extra- 
ordinary language in respect to these two judgments, 
which we find recorded in Luke xvii. The disciples 
had asked Him about the last great , day ,— to oc- 
cur at His second coming; and He had told them 
that the kingdom of heaven cometh not with obser- 
vation ; neither should they say, Lo here, or Lo there / 
thus that the judgment day would not be visible 
to the natural eyes, nor would it be an event that 
could be found in the natural world — nevertheless 
that there would be some visible tokens or signs of 
its effects given among men. He then refers back, by 
way of comparison, to these two ancient judgments 
that had already occurred— saying — " And as it was 
in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 99 

the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they 
married wives, they were given in marriage, until 
the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the 
flood came and destroyed them all. 

" Likewise, also, as it was in the clays of Lot ; they 
did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they 
planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot 
went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from 
heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it 
be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.- ' 

The days of judgment being events of the other 
world, neither their approach nor their occurrence 
is visible to men, but still, when they do occur, 
some visible signs, as effects, do make their appear- 
ance in our world. 

We cannot now say all that might be said in re- 
lation to this subject. Our principal object in 
bringing forth so much of it here is to prepare the 
way for something else. We desire to speak ere long 
of the work which our Lord and Saviour performed 
while He was in the world. And this work no one 
can understand in its reality and its fulness, until he 
takes into view all the regions and populations to 
which it extended. He had an important mission, 
too, with respect to Hades. He came to do a work 
in the world of spirits as well . as in the world of 
men ; — a work that is too commonly omitted or left 
out of view. He came down to bring on a crisis, — to 
execute a judgment, to rescue the good, to separate the 
evil, to roll back the kingdom of darkness, and to save 
the world from impending destruction. And the more 



100 HISTORY OF THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

that work is studied in the light of all that the Bible 
Bays of it, the more definite will our ideas become, and 
the greater, in all respects, will that work itself be 
seen to be. 

It will be seen, therefore, that these things all have 
a direct practical bearing ; and the more so, the 
better they are understood. By a laying open of the 
laws and influences of the other world, we are the 
better able to avoid and resist what is evil, as well as 
to become the more strongly fortified in what is 
true and good. The book of Revelation itself, in- 
stead of being any longer a dark problem, an 
unsolved riddle, becomes at once luminous with 
great truths, shedding down upon us a flood of bril- 
liant light, rendering its pages among the most in- 
structive, and the most strictly practical, of any we 
can find in the Bible. 

Is not a proper understanding of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, — to know what they really mean, — the one 
great want of our time ? 

And is it not a manifest proof, both of the great 
providence of God and of the real inspiration of the 
Bible,— that He has reserved, folded up within its 
leaves, such a mighty mass of spiritual and heavenly 
truths (as He reserved the corresponding truths of 
the physical universe), to burst forth from its pages, 
as of themselves, for the light and illustration of 
men, as soon as the general culture has proceeded 
far enough to perceive them, and when the advance- 
ment of the human race has reached a point at 
which such additional light is clearly needed for its 
guidance and use ? 



THE PROPHECY OF OUR LORD'S WORK. 101 



CHAPTER X. 

THE PROPHECY OF OUR LORD'S WORK AS ONE OF 
JUDGMENT -AND DELIVERANCE. 

" But who may abide the Day of His coming? " — Mal. m. 2. 



"We have promised to give some account of the 
work which our Lord Jesus Christ performed, while 
He was in the world, for the redemption and salva- 
tion of men. This, our previous course has in some 
measure prepared us to do. For, it has been our 
endeavor all along to bring into view, and place 
distinctly before you, that region of our universe in 
which a large and important portion of that work 
lay, — the world of spirits, intermediate between heav- 
en and hell. We have beheld it, as opened to us in the 
Scriptures, to be a great, real, populous, and living 
world ; with its communities distributed very conti- 
guously to the populations of our world, constantly 
operating with great power upon them. And we 
are ready now, therefore, to contemplate His mis- 
sion as reaching through to that invisible realm ; 
and in support of this we shall be able to bring 
together a larger array of Scripture evidence, than 
we have had for anything we have hitherto said. 



102 THE PROPHECY OF OUR LORD'S WORK, 

We believe that the Lord, our Heavenly Father,— 
one single Divine Person, Jehovah, — is the sole 
Ruler of the universe ; that He has, at various suc- 
cessive times, revealed Himself to His children, as 
their needs suggested, and performed such things 
as were required for their instruction and salvation. 
In the days of Noah He came, manifesting Himself 
by granting open vision to those who saw and heard 
Him, executing a judgment upon the wicked in 
both worlds, gathering Noah and his family into 
the ark, and saving the good. 

In the days of Lot He came down again, to visit 
and explore the wickedness of men ; manifested Him- 
self to Abraham, executed a similar judgment in 
both worlds, saving the good. Then He came to Moses, 
speaking with him face to face, as a man talketh with 
his friend; and after that, to the prophets in suc- 
cession. 

But the time arrived when this kind of manifesta- 
tion was not enough. Such visitations did not ac- 
complish all the work that was needed to be done. 
Something more was wanted, to break up the power 
of evil, to subdue the kingdom of darkness in such a 
way as to place limits to it, keeping it in subjection 
and so, permanently secure the freedom and protec- 
tion of the human race. 

This He did by coming into the world. As before, 
He had always rendered Himself visible in a human 
form, so He did in this case. In the older times, He 
showed Himself to the prophets in and through an 
angelic form, — " the Angel of Jehovah." But when 



THE PROPHECY OF OUR LORD'S WORK. 103 

He came into the world, "He," — as the Apostle 
says,— no longer " took on Him the nature and form 
of angels, but took on Him the seed of Abraham." 

In an angelic human form He was visible only to 
spirits in their world, and to the few men in this who 
had holy vision ; who had their spiritual sight opened. 
But the manifestation now was to be to men, for 
their benefit also. He came to present Himself to 
them, and to manifest His truth and His power in our 
world. So He assumed a bodily human form. The 
outward form itself, with certain external things of 
the mind, was born of the Virgin Mary, and called 
the Son ; but the Heavenly Father was present in it, 
dwelt in it, filled it completely with His own infinite 
Spirit, spoke through it, did the works through it ; 
in it dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily ; and 
by so dwelling in it, the Supreme Divinity finally 
glorified that form, and took it up above all the heav- 
ens, as its own perpetual robe or covering, in which 
it forever dwells, as a man's soul dwells in its body. 

In the prophecies of the Old Testament relating to 
the subject, it is uniformly declared that it would be 
Jehovah Himself who should come and redeem and 
save His people. . No other Saviour or Redeemer is 
ever once promised, or even so much as spoken of. 
Thus, in Isaiah : " That all flesh may know that I, 
Jehovah, am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer." And, 
again : " As for our Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts is 
His name." And, in Hosea, Jehovah says : " There 
is no Saviour besides Me." And, in another place 
in Isaiah, we read : " Thy Redeemer is the Holy One 



104 THE PROPHECY OF OUR LORIES WORK. 

of Israel : the God of the whole earth shall He be 
called." 

These texts could be multiplied indefinitely, for it 
is the uniform testimony of the prophets throughout. 
And Isaiah says of the Son that was to be born into 
the world, that He should be called " the Mighty 
God, the Everlasting Father." 

There is another class of prophecies, however, rela- 
ting to our Lord's coming in the flesh, to which I wish 
to call attention, which is very apt to be overlooked. 
His appearing in the world is always foretold as a 
day of judgment. Did you ever think of this? 
Was it ever pointed out, or did it ever occur to you 
before? You will remember, of course, that all 
through the old prophets a day of judgment is spoken 
of, the great day of the Lord, the day of vengeance, 
the day of wrath, the day of His fierce anger — of the 
destruction of His enemies, &c. But when you 
come to examine you will find that the day there 
foretold is not called the last judgment. Only Dan- 
iel, I believe, of all the Hebrew prophets, speaks of 
the final judgment. The other prophecies of it are 
contained in the New Testament. But the day men- 
tioned by all the other prophets, is a judgment to 
occur at the end of the Israelitish Church, at the 
winding up of the Jewish Dispensation, and to be 
executed by the Messiah Himself, when He should 
make His first appearance in the world. If the 
thought is new to you, it is a fact worth pondering. 

In this connection, let us recur for a moment to 
that remarkable passage respecting the Messiah 



THE PROPHECY OF OUR LORD'S WORK. 105 

which is recorded in the sixty-third chapter of. Isaiah : 
" Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed 
garments from Bozrah ? This that is glorious in 
His apparel, travelling in the greatness of His 
strength ? I, that speak in righteousness, mighty to 
save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and 
thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine vat ? 
I have trodden the wine-press alone ; and of the peo- 
ple there was none with me ; for I will tread them 
in mine anger, and trample them in my fury ; and 
their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, 
and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of 
vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my re- 
deemed is come. And I looked, and there was none 
to help ; and I wondered that there was none to up- 
hold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation 
unto me, and my fury it upheld me. And I will 
tread down the people in mine anger, and make them 
drink in my fury ; and I will bring down their 
strength to the earth ! " 

Now, this is certainly a remarkable passage. And 
how does it apply to the work of our Saviour ? What 
is there in the life and actions of the meek and lowly 
Jesus, as they are commonly set forth, to meet and 
fulfil such prophecies as this? Surely, that view 
which takes into account only His visible actions 
among men, as He walked, a passive sufferer, the 
plains of Judea, is wholly inadequate to explain the 
representations of Scripture. There is clearly set 
forth a struggle against enemies, and a judgment 
upon them ; a casting down and a vanquishing of 

5* 



106 THE PROPHECY OF OUR LORD'S WORK. 

the opposing forces, while the impression all along 
carried is that their hosts were numerous and power- 
ful, that their presence threatened destruction, and 
that there could be no salvation without their re- 
moval. At what cost the victory is represented as 
being gained ! And He alone did the work. Is it 
not an exact counterpart of a judgment, as described 
in the book of Revelation ? 

But this is not a solitary passage ; the prophets 
are full of such declarations. Such is the work which 
they all uniformly predict the Messiah would come 
to do. 

And here we see their reference to the populations 
of the other world. It was in the intermediate re- 
gion that the wicked had accumulated. It was there 
that Satan had his stronghold. It was there that the 
enemies of the Church had congregated in an over- 
whelming mass, threatening, at the time our Lord 
came, the overthrow of moral goodness in the world, 
and thereby the total destruction of the Church; 
and with it, of course, the destruction of the souls 
of men. "Wickedness had so increased, both in the 
world of spirits and in the world of men, that no 
door stood open for the salvation of the race. 

Hence, one great part of the work to be done was 
to remove that spiritual incubus from the minds of 
men ; to take off that supernatural pressure flowing 
in upon them from the invisible world, carrying them 
down to destruction, and destroy its influence. 

This work is the burden of the prophecies. He 
was to come to vanquish this multitude of enemies 



THE PROPHECY OF OUR LORD'S WORK. 107 

against the souls of mankind, and deliver them 
from the bondage in which these powers of hell were 
keeping them bound. This operation appears al- 
ways to be spoken of by the prophets as constitu- 
ting peculiarly His work of redemption. This will 
be seen more clearly perhaps as we go on. 

Let us call to mind that well-known passage in the 
sixty-first chapter of Isaiah. 

" The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me, 
" Because Jehovah hath anointed me, 
" To preach glad tidings to the meek. 
" He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, 
" To proclaim liberty to the captives, 
" And the opening of the prison to the bound: 
" To proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah, 
"And the day of vengeance of our God." 
Here, we see the work to be done is the liberating; 
of souls held in direful bondage, and the execution 
of a judgment upon the evil powers holding them in 
bondage, proclaiming the day of God's vengeance, 
which is always the representation of the judgment 
day. 

As many will remember, this is the passage which 
our Lord read, when He went into the synagogue on 
the Sabbath day, and there was handed to Him the 
book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had 
closed the book and sat down. He said unto them, 
" This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." 
We see therefore that there is no doubt about the 
date of its fulfilment, It applied to his first coming, 
In another place in the same prophet it is said 



108 

of Him, " He put on righteousness as a breast-plate, 
and the helmet of salvation upon His head, and 
He put on garments of vengeance, and covered 
Himself with zeal as with a cloak ; then He came to 
Zion as a Redeemer." (Isaiah lxix. 16.) And fol- 
lowing out the subject, speaking of His enemies who 
fought against Him, it is said, in Jeremiah, " They 
were dismayed, their strong ones were knocked 
down; they fled apace, neither did they look back; 
that day is to the Lord Jehovah of hosts a day 
of revenge, that He may take vengeance on His 
enemies." 

How do such representations as these apply to the 
outward, visible work of Jesus among men ? Did 
He put on wrath thus, and institute war, and take 
vengeance on His enemies ? We see that there is 
no application of these prophecies, until we turn to 
His work upon the spirits of the unseen world. All 
then becomes clear, and every passage falls into its 
right place ; for the moment we open the four Gos- 
pels and read, we find how prominent a place is 
there given to that work. The Lord is surrounded 
by evil spirits from the pit. He is tempted by the 
devil, grievously, successively, and in a variety 
of ways. His active mission opens by operations 
performed upon these unclean spirits or devils ; con- 
founding them in their possessions of men, casting 
them out, reprimanding them, and driving them 
away from their victims ; assuming the tone of 
power and authority over them, saying, " Come out 
of him, thou foul spirit, and enter no more into him." 



THE PROPHECY OF OUR LORD'S WORK. 109 

The evil spirits themselves feared him, recognized 
Him in something of His true character, perceived, 
too, something of the mighty import of his mission, 
and were apprehensive of their own final defeat and 
overthrow. On one occasion, the devil said to Him, 
" If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down ; for 
it is written, He shall give His angels charge con- 
cerning thee ; and in their hands they shall bear 
thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against 
a stone." (Matt. iv. 6). Again, a band of the 
spirits said to Him, " We know Thee who thou art, 
the Holy One of God." On another occasion they 
exclaimed, " Why hast Thou come to torment us 
before the time?" while we behold another com- 
pany beseeching Him, that if He cast them out from 
the men, He would at least allow them to go into 
the herd of swine. And they had leave, to the num- 
ber of two thousand. 

Is not this work, which He performed upon the 
spirits of the unseen world, a great burden of the 
Gospels? The declarations concerning it are con- 
stant, plain, simple, and clear. Allusion is made to 
it in more than sixty passages of the Gospel history. 

Looking back, then, to those old prophecies we can 
see what they mean. We have before us the warfare 
which He waged, the enemies against whom He 
fought, the victory He achieved, and the casting 
down or judgment which He accomplished. And 
we can read such passages as the following in the 
Messianic Psalm, in a new and clearer light : " Gird 
on thy sword upon thy thigh, O thou most Mighty; 



110 THE PROPHECY OF OUR LORD'S WORK. 

with thy glory and thy majesty, and in thy majesty 
ride prosperously, because of truth, and meekness, 
and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach 
thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the 
heart of the king's enemies; whereby the people 
fall under thee. Thy throne, O God, is for ever 
and ever ; the sceptre of thy Kingdom is a right 
sceptre." (Ps. xlv., 3 et seq.) 

From this point of view we can understand, too, 
the application of the remarkable prophecy of Mal- 
achi in relation to His coming: " Behold, I will 
send my Messenger, and he shall prepare the way 
before Me ; and the Lord whom ye seek, shall sud- 
denly come to His temple, even the Messenger of 
the covenant, whom ye delight in ; behold He shall 
come, saith the Lord of Hosts. But who may abide 
the day of His coming ? or, who shall stand when 
He appeareth ? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like 
fuller's soap. * * * And I will come near to 
you to judgment." (Mai. iii. 1-5.) " For, behold 
the day cometh that shall burn as an oven ; and all 
the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be 
stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them 
up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them 
neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my 
name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise with heal- 
ing in His wings. * * *■ * Behold, I will send 
you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the 
great and dreadful day of the Lord." (Mai. iv. 1-5.) 

Here is one of the most distinct prophecies of 
a judgment day there is in the whole Bible. 



THE PROPHECY OF OUR LORD'S WORK. Ill 

"What is clearer than that that day was to be brought 
about by the appearance of the Messiah in the 
world? Every sentence points to that. And so, the 
corresponding prophecy of Joel, — in which the same 
great and notable day of Jehovah, that was to come 
to burn up the wicked, judging them and scattering 
them, and which the prophet says shall come at the 
end of his people Israel, the end of the Jewish 
Church,- — is quoted by the Apostle Peter, in his ser- 
mon on the day of Pentecost, in the second chapter 
of Acts ; and he tells his hearers that in his own day, 
and by the appearance of our Lord in the world, 
was that prophecy fulfilled. So there is no doubt 
about the application of these predictions. Such is 
the tenor of all the prophets. 



112 ojjr lord's work of judgment, etc. 



CHAPTER XL 

OUR LORD'S WORK OF JUDGMENT AND REDEMPTION. 
" For judgment I am come into this world." — John ix. 39. 



At the time our Lord came, the world of spirits 
was in a worse condition than it had ever been in 
before. The wicked had accumulated there in vast 
numbers. There had been no general or universal 
judgment since the days of Noah. The judgment 
in the days of Lot had reached only one portion of 
the people then in sheol or hades, as appears from 
some parts of Scripture, and hence there were per- 
sons still there who had lived in all the generations 
since the days of Noah, but more of those who be- 
longed to the generations since Abraham ; thus, 
over a period, according to the chronology of the 
LXX., of more than three thousand years. And in all 
that time the general morality of the race had been 
declining, while the population of the world had 
greatly increased. 

On a little reflection, therefore, we can form some 
faint conception of the state of that intermediate 



our lord's work of judgment, etc. 113 

world. From ninety to a hundred generations of 
men had lived on our earth. By far the larger por- 
tion of them had been idolatrous, wicked men ; and 
on passing into the other world, had immediately 
become evil or unclean spirits, or " demons." 

There they lay, an immense mass, in immediate 
contact with men, infusing their influences into their 
minds, hanging over them in a dense cloud, and 
effectually preventing the descent to men of good 
influences from the Lord and the angels. 

Thus had accumulated a great body of corruption. 
Evil had come to predominate over good throughout 
that intermediate world. In those days the king- 
dom of Heaven suffered violence, and the violent 
took it by force. The evil crew from the pit were 
let loose, and flocked up into the world of spirits, 
re-enforcing the side of wickedness, and adding their 
weight to the heavy scale of woe that was pressing 
down upon mankind. The powers of hell had the 
whole field to themselves in hades. The devil and 
his crew had literally become, as he is called, the 
prince or ruler of this world. By their craft they 
had spiritually overwhelmed mankind, to the de- 
struction of their souls. They had done more. They 
had at length gone so far as to be able to destroy 
human freedom ; to take away a man's power to 
think and feel as the dictates of his own mind should 
prompt him, and could compel him to think, feel, 
and act as they wanted to have him. Thus they be- 
gan to take actual possession of mankind, both soul 
and body, and to turn them into mere mediums or 



114 our lord's work of judgment, etc. 

machines of their own. They threw them into 
paroxysms, so that they would fall on the ground 
and " wallow, foaming ;" caused them to be deaf 
and dumb ; made them throw themselves into the 
fire, and into the water ; drove them out from among 
their kindred to dwell among the tombs, and in 
desert places ; at times rendering them so fierce 
that no man might pass by that way. At their 
option, they caused their victims to cut themselves 
with stones^ or other sharp instruments ; sometimes 
withering up their limbs, so that they could no 
longer use them ; in short, inflicting pain and dis- 
ease, and causing death in almost any manner they 
pleased. 

This terrible state of things was not confined to 
Judea. It extended into the populations around; 
and, indeed, abounded throughout that Eastern 
world. It was, too, fearfully on the increase, and 
was the dreaded plague of the common people of 
that day and generation. 

Had it continued, universal destruction must have 
been the consequence. No human power could stay 
its influences or arrest its progress. In no great 
length of time, human society must have been re- 
duced to the most deplorable conditions. Men could 
not long have survived under such influences. Ere 
long, the population of the world must have become 
extinct. And passing forward, in a degraded state 
themselves, into the world of spirits, where every 
inch was occupied by the infernal powers, the whole 
mass must have moved on together towards the 



our lord's work of judgment, etc. 115 

lower regions, to be overwhelmed in one common 
destruction at last. Except those days had been 
shortened, no flesh could have been saved. 

It was to meet this state of things that the Lord 
came into the world ; and we can see something 
of the mighty work which stood before Him to be 
done. He was to withstand all this mighty force. 
He was to meet this vast tide of evil influences from 
hell, and break its power. He was to stand in the 
breach and save His people; receiving the shafts 
of the enemy into His own person, resisting for us, 
engaging in the conflict for our sakes, conquering 
for us; overcoming the powers of darkness, rolling 
back the tide, casting Satan down, liberating men 
from the infernal bondage, and instead, bringing 
down a host of heavenly influences into that inter- 
mediate world. 

Hell was to be conquered ; Hades was to be judged ; 
mankind were to be redeemed ; and the kingdom of 
God to be instituted both in the world of spirits and 
in the world of men. 

From the first moment He began, as the 
prophet says, " Satan stood at His right hand to 
resist him." All the infernal powers were stirred up 
to oppose his work, and, if possible, overwhelm His 
person. This was the great pressure which lay upon 
His soul all the time He was in the world — this con- 
stant spiritual effort of the infernal powers to over- 
whelm and destroy Him, that they might defeat His 
work. Into the human part, which He had assumed 
to appear in the world, He received their assaults. 



116 our lord's work of judgment, etc. 

In that way He was tempted and suffered. " He 
was tempted in all points like as we are," the apos- 
tle says, "yet without sin." How grievous some of 
those temptations were, we may infer from the forty 
days in which he did eat nothing, but was in the 
wilderness ; from the agony endured in the garden of 
Gethsemane, and the last great suffering on the 
cross. 

Speaking of His followers, " Tor their sakes," He 
says, " I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanc- 
tified " through the truth. The whole was endured 
for human redemption, regeneration, and salvation. 

From the first moment of his public ministry, the 
Devil, as we read, began to assault Him. He 
endeavored to turn Him aside from His work. But 
He constantly overcame the devils by the Word of 
His mouth : by the power of His Truth, saying, 
" Get thee behind me, Satan ; for it is written, thou 
shalt not tempt the Lord thy God ;" again, " Thou 
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt 
thou serve." And, again, " It is written that man 
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that 
proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 

From His very constitution and nature, our Lord 
enjoyed constant communication with the unseen 
world. He is called the great, and the greatest 
Prophet. A peculiarity of the prophetic office 
is, that it constitutes one a seer, opening his spiritual 
sight, and giving him a view of the invisible world. 
Our Lord was in the prophetic state all the time. 
He needed not that any should testify of men, for He 



OTTR LORD'S WORK OF JUDGMENT, ETC. 117 

knew what was in men. The spirit was given unto 
Him without measure. Holy vision was His perma- 
nent condition. The world of spirits was as present 
to Him and as open to His view as the world of men. 
Both populations were equally before Him; both, 
equally, held communication with Him : constantly 
came the evil spirits; constantly came the angels. 
"When, for a moment, upon Mount Tabor, the three 
disciples had their vision opened, they, too, saw Him 
as He was, as He appeared to angels all the time ; they 
saw Him as if transfigured ; they saw Him in His 
own spiritual form, glorified and heavenly. And 
they saw Moses and the prophet Elijah standing 
beside Him. When the cloud came and covered 
them, Moses and Elijah did not go away and leave 
Him ; only, the vision of the three apostles closed up. 
The beings of the unseen world were constantly 
about Him thus. All the time He was on earth 
He was living a life and performing a work in that 
world, as fully as He was living a life and performing 
a work in this world. 

On several occasions we read, that " angels came 
and ministered unto Him ;" " ministered unto Him." 
I suppose that, as we read this passage ordinarily, 
we are very apt to misapprehend its real meaning. 
There are two ways in which one person may minis- 
ter to another. A superior may minister to an infe- 
rior, by affording him needed help. Such is the 
ministration of angels to men, to us. But, again, an 
inferior may minister to a superior, by serving him, 
obeying his commands, and executing his behests. 



118 our lord's work of judgment, etc. 

It is in this latter sense, no doubt, that we are 
to understand the ministration of angels when 
applied to the Lord. Constituted as He was, He 
could not have taken anything or received any help 
from the angels; for He himself had all power, in 
heaven and on earth. We read, too, that the 
angels are " ministers of His, to do his will." For 
this purpose were they called about Him while 
Pie was in the world : — that they might be there, 
ready to execute whatsoever He should command 
them ; ministering to Him by serving Him. 

As in the world of men, He had about Him a 
body of disciples, whom He sent forth from time to 
time into the places round about to preach the word, 
heal diseases, and cast out devils ; so, too, He had 
about him in the other world a similar body of angels, 
through whose agency He was in like manner extend- 
ing His own work through hades, reaching the 
populations there, seeking out the good and rescuing 
them from the dominion of the evil, preaching the 
word, creating separations and . commotions there; 
in short, executing a judgment — overturning the 
foundations of that evil society, and causing the 
crew of the evil one to be cast down, and shut up in 
their own abodes. 

When, as on the occasion mentioned in John, 
xii. 30, the tumult and commotion of that world 
caused itself to be heard through into this, — the 
voices from that unseen region falling upon the ears 
of the multitude who stood around Him. like the 
roar or noise of thunder; and when all eyes were 



our lord's work of judgment, etc. 119 

turned to Him for an explanation of what they 
heard, He says, with reference to what came to their 
ears from the other world, and with reference to 
what was going on there, " Now is the judgment of 
this world : now shall the prince (or unseen evil 
ruler) of this world be cast out." In other words, 
the judgment is now going on in that other world, 
and the devils there are now. being cast down. 

When His disciples, on one occasion, returned to 
Him from a mission into the neighboring towns and 
cities, they said unto Him, — " Lord, even the devils 
were subject unto us through Thy name," He im- 
mediately answered, and said unto them, — " I beheld 
Satan, as lightning fall from heaven." His eyes 
were open to that world, and saw the whole process 
as it was going on. The work which the disciples 
in this world had been doing, in casting out the evil 
spirits and removing them from men, was aiding, 
too, in the great general work that was then going 
on under His supervision throughout the world of 
spirits. He saw how they were being cast down 
from those exalted seats or elevated positions in that 
world which they had arrogated to themselves, and 
which they had actually taken possession of, as we 
read, by violence or force. 

In this view, we can see, too, the fulness of mean- 
ing and application in those grand words in Luke, 
which are so often chanted or sung throughout the 
Christian world : 

" He hath showed strength with His arm ; 



120 our lord's work of judgment, etc. 

" He hath scattered the proud in the imagination 
of their heart ; 

" He hath cast down the mighty from their seats." 

Such words come home to us with new power and 
feeling, as we come to gain a definite idea of the great 
importance and magnitude of the work to which 
they refer ; while volumes of new light and mental 
illustration, and rational thought, burst forth from 
passage after passage as we read along, where before 
we gathered only vague and indefinite impressions. 

As we read through the Gospels, we shall find that 
it was this control which He had over the beings of 
the other world, and the consequent power which He 
exercised in casting out these unclean spirits and rid- 
ding men of their infestations, which, more than 
anything else, drew the crowds after Him. It was 
this that excited most widely the popular attention, 
extending His fame throughout all Syria. It was 
the most prominent element in that profound interest 
with which He was regarded everywhere by the 
masses. The great multitudes went after Him, flock- 
ing to Him from remote distances, because by Him 
they could have the demoniacal diseases healed, and 
the infesting spirits driven away. As we have 
said, they were the great plague and torment of that 
age. The most constant and fervent prayer that 
went up from the hearts of the people was that the 
unclean spirits might be rebuked, and the torment- 
ing devils cast out. 

And, as we see, the Lord came, and brought deliv- 
erance to them and to all mankind. 



ETC. 121 

Hardly any one, we presume, at the present day 
will need to be told that He did not come to deliver 
men from the wrath of God ; that, indeed, narequire- 
ment or necessity of that kind existed. Hell was the 
power that was holding them in bondage, and hence . 
it was from this great adversary, and its emissaries 
that He came to redeem them, to deliver and save 
them. And hence, too, such is the constant language 
of the Scripture respecting His work. If persons 
have never paid attention to the fact, the universality 
of the teaching will surprise them. Throughout the 
Psalms of David and all the prophets, the great 
work laid out for the Messiah to do is for Him to 
deliver His people from their enemies. Well, who 
were, and are, their enemies, in a real and Scriptural 
sense ? Who are the enemies of the Church and of 
all mankind, against whom we all have to fight ? 
Can they be any other than the evil spirits of the 
pit ? The Jews, undoubtedly, understood by their 
enemies, the nations around them. But who will say 
that such is the true Christian sense ? When our 
Lord came, He did not deliver the nation from the 
Romans, the visible enemies, whom the Jews then 
hated and feared. Who cannot see at a glance that 
the host of enemies all along referred to "and meant 
was that vast congregation of bad spirits in the 
intermediate world which He was to sweep away 
by the word of His mouth and the arm of His 
strength ? 

In this connection let us call attention to the words 
of the Benedictus, that new Testament hymn given 

6 



122 our lord's work of judgment, etc. 

as in Luke. In a few inspired sentences it sums 
up for us the Lord's work of Redemption and 
Salvation. And how does it describe it ? Let us 
listen : 

" Blessed be the Lord God of Israel ; 
" For He hath visited and redeemed His people; 
" And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us, 
" In the house of His servant David, 
" As He spoke by His holy prophets, 
" Who have been since the world began ; 
" That we should he saved from our enemies, 
" And from the hand of all that hate us. 
" To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, 
u The oath which He sware to our father Abraham, 
" That He would grant unto us ; 
"That we, heing delivered from the hand of our 

enemies, 
" Might serve Him without fear, 
" In holiness and in righteousness, 
" All the days of our life." 

Such is the testimony ; and the burden of it, as 
will be seen, is the deliverance from enemies, and the 
consequent liberty of loving and serving the Lord, 
while this is declared to be the fulfilment of the 
covenant, and the one teaching of all the prophets, 
since the world began. 

Can anything be plainer, or more distinct in affir- 
mation, than this ? 

After our Lord's career on earth had ceased, He 
remained in that intermediate world — in hades— a 
while, to finish there the work which He had in- 



our lord's work of judgment, etc. 123 

augurated. As it is written in the Creed, " He de- 
scended into hell." But, as is well known, this is an 
incorrect translation. It simply means, that He 
went into the world of departed spirits. In it our 
Lord remained during the forty days after His re- 
surrection, and before His ascension into heaven. 
While there, He frequently appeared to His disciples 
by the opening of their spiritual sight. While there, 
too, He went and preached to captive souls, who had 
been held in bondage there ever since the judgment 
that had been executed in the days of Noah. 

This last fact has of late years been thrown into 
some doubt in the mind of the general reader, sim- 
ply by the obscurity of translation in our New Testa- 
ment. As the passage stands in our Bible (1 Pet. 
iii. 18, 19, 20), it reads, after speaking of Christ as 
having come to bring us salvation, "being put to 
death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit : by 
which also He went and preached unto the spirits 
in prison, which sometime were disobedient while 
once the long suffering of God waited in the days 
of Noah, while the ark was preparing." As we 
notice, the thought is here coveyed with a degree of 
indistinctness. 

On turning, now, to the Peshito version — the edi- 
tion of the New Testament prepared as early as the 
second century for the use of the Syrian Christians, 
and translated, some say, under the eyes of the 
apostles themselves — we find the idea more clearly 
expressed. It reads : " And He died in (as to) His 
body, but lived in (as to) spirit. And He preached 



124 our lord's work of judgment, etc. 

to those souls which were detained in hades, which 
were formerly disobedient in the days of Noah, when 
the long suffering of God commanded an ark to be 
made, in hope of their repentance. 

Here, as we see, the affirmation is distinct that 
those spirits had been detained in hades ever since 
the days of Noah. And hence, too, the judgment in 
the days of Lot could not have been entirely univer- 
sal, for these spirits had still been left in that inter- 
mediate world. 

Is it surprising, then, that, with the vast amount 
of Scripture testimony there is to the point, followed 
by the constant teaching of the apostles, we find the 
primitive Christian Church full of this doctrine ? 
The Lord's great work in the unseen world was a 
prominent theme in all their teaching and writing. 
Not long since, an entire volume was published in 
Boston, made up of extracts on this point from their 
writings. For five hundred years, the early Church 
comes forward to us, with an unbroken front, having 
this doctrine of Redemption inscribed on its banners. 

And shall not we, too, let it into our creeds ? 

[The Doctrine of Reconciliation or "Atonement," 
and the grand theme of the glorification of the hu- 
manity assumed by our Lord, the making it Divine, 
and thence the plenary unition of the Humanity 
with, the Supreme Divinity, though of the utmost 
importance, and every way inviting, are subjects 
which we do not now purpose to discuss.] 

There is a general impression abroad that we live 
on the eve of great events with respect to the 



our lord's work of judgment, etc. 125 

Church. Christians almost everywhere are looking 
for some new manifestations of light and life, and 
this impression, we feel assured, is well founded. 
The Lord will be present with men in greater ful- 
ness of power. This is the day of His second 
coming, and He is now in the world through the 
medium of His Truth, and the influences of His 
Spirit. He is here to institute His Latter-day 
Church, the Church of the New Jerusalem. His 
angels are with Him in the world of spirits, to act 
as His agents in carrying on the work. They press 
in to be received by men. And they will continue 
to pour the influences of the spiritual world upon us 
until their work is accomplished. New light and 
illustration are to break out and continue to flow 
from the pages of His Holy Word. True Christian 
doctrine is to be restored, the Bible is to be better 
understood, new life is to be infused into the Church ; 
men are now called to serve Him with greater faith- 
fulness and purity ; while there will be granted them 
more power in subduing their own evils, in renova- 
ting their lives, and being obedient to His command- 
ments. 



126 THE " END," NOT u OF THE WORLD." 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE "END," NOT <k OF THE WOKLD," BUT OF THE 
DISPENSATION. 

" And as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came 
unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be ? 
And what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of 
the world. " — Matt. xxiv. 3. 



The " end of the world " is a subject which has 
attracted considerable attention. That such an 
event is to take place has long been a doctrine in 
the Christian world. It has been supposed that this 
habitable globe will be destroyed, the ground or 
earth be consumed by fire, the stars fall from the 
visible heavens overhead, the heavens themselves 
being rolled together like a scroll, be swept from ex- 
istence, the history of nations cease, and the birth 
or propagation of mankind come to an end. 

These views have been drawn from the Sacred 
Scripture. Two classes of passages in the Bible 
have been supposed to teach or imply them, viz. :■ 
first, those in which, as in the above, the end of the 
world is distinctly spoken of, and, secondly, those 



THE "END," NOT "OF THE WORLD." 127 

others in which the sun, moon, and stars are spoken 
of as falling from their places or being darkened, 
the sea being no more, and the earth as being de- 
stroyed, or purified, or burned up by fire. 

Much has been written to expand, illustrate, and 
define these views. Confirmations of them have 
been sought from a variety of sources. Heathen 
traditions have been made to contribute their share; 
while various facts of science have, in former times, 
been so read as to have them appear to favor the 
same conclusions. Various theories of the event 
have been devised, and while the discoveries of 
modern science have served to modify the views in 
many respects, as held among the learned, yet we 
may put it down as the common idea of the Chris- 
tian world, that the earth is going to be destroyed in 
no great length of time. The greater the attention 
which any men pay to this class of subjects, and 
the more they search the prophecies in that view, 
the more disposed do we find them to believe that 
the time is at hand, and therefore to declare that the 
end of all things draweth nigh. 

Now we, of the New Church, have points of agree- 
ment with this general Christian view. We believe 
in the actual and complete fulfilment of all divine 
prophecy. We believe that these passages of Scrip- 
ture do foretell very remarkable events to happen in 
the course of the world's history. And we further 
agree with the great body of Christian commentators 
that their fulfilment may properly be expected in 
or about this age of the world : that these are the 



128 THE " END/' NOT " OF THE WORLD." 

times spoken of as the latter days ; the days in which 
the prophecies of the Holy Word run to their culmi- 
nation. We look upon the centuries now passing, 
therefore, as a great transition period in the affairs of 
the Church, and consequently in human history. 

But we differ in our understanding of the Scrip- 
tures. We do not agree with the interpretation 
which they put upon much of the Bible language. 
We are accustomed to read there a different line 
of thought on these subjects from that which they, 
for the most part, seem to find. Therefore we 
are expecting a different kind of fulfilment ; we are 
not looking for the same sort of events to happen as 
those for which they are looking. 

We believe, according.to the repeated declarations 
made by the Lord in the volume of His Word, that 
He hath created the earth and established it that it 
may abide forever; that He hath given it fixed foun- 
dations that it cannot be moved ; that He made it 
to be inhabited, and that He hath given it as a per- 
manent possession to the children of men. " One 
generation passeth away and another cometh, but the 
earth abideth forever." 

We are told that the object which our Heavenly 
Father has in view is the formation of a heaven out 
of the human race, which may go on increasing in 
purity, in happiness, and in numbers to eternity. 
The earth, therefore, is required as a seminary for 
heaven — as a place for the birth and education of the 
human race — as a place from which the population 
of heaven may be continually increased by the emi- 



THE " END," NOT C< OF THE WORLD." 129 

gration of good people from this world to the other, 
through the process of natural death. 

Hence we believe that the earth will endure; 
that men will not cease to be born and grow up on 
this planet. No outward change will come to break 
up the onward flow of human history. The nations 
will go on and develop as heretofore. The stars 
will move on in their courses, and all the visible 
heavens remain as they are. The solid framework 
of the globe will abide. Its surface will remain 
undisturbed, save as it may be gradually altered by 
the operation of certain geological forces which are 
constantly at work. The population of the globe 
will increase, and one who should revisit this earth 
a thousand years from now — a hundred thousand 
years from now — will find it much as it is at present 
in its essential features ; only more populous, civili- 
zation more advanced, and more widely extended, 
the Gospel more diffused, more unity of sentiment on 
the great themes of religion, and men, on the whole, 
at the end of each great cycle, possessed of more wis- 
dom and endowed with greater degrees of goodness, 
morality, and social order. 

It will naturally be asked, then, How do we dis- 
pose of the two classes of passages in Scripture com- 
monly understood to predict the destruction of the 
world ? And to this question we will endeavor 
briefly to reply. 

1. When we lay aside our common translation of 
the Bible and turn to the Greek Testament, we do 
not find the " end of the world " foretold at all. 

6* 



130 THE " END/ 5 NOT " OF THE WORLD." 

There is no such expression there. Nor is there any 
phrase or expression that answers to it. 

There is in the Greek a common and familiar 
word to express our idea of the visible world. And 
that word is Kosmos. It is peculiarly and distinct- 
ively fitted to translate it, standing in the Greek 
mind for just the idea that our common word world 
does in the English mind ; meaning sometimes visi- 
ble nature, and sometimes also the men inhabiting 
visible nature. Now this word was familiar to the 
writers of the New Testament in just this sense, and 
they constantly employed it in this sense. Whenever 
they desired to speak of the world of nature, or of 
the world of men inhabiting nature, they used the 
term Kosmos. It occurs no less than a hundred and 
ninety-one times, in this sense, in the New Testa- 
ment, and is always so translated in our common 
version. We see, therefore, what they said when 
they wanted to say world ; they said Kosmos. 

Now this phrase which we are here considering, 
" end of the world," occurs seven times in our copies 
of the New Testament; five times in Matthew, and 
twice in the Epistles of Paul. But in these seven 
cases the word Kosmos is not used. It is never said 
that the Kosmos is going to come to an end, but 
another term is employed. The word Axon is intro- 
duced to denote that which closes up or comes to an 
end. It is always the end of the Alon that is fore- 
told, and of the Awn only. Now this is a term 
which relates to time, expressing the idea of dura- 
tion or length. It answers yery nearly to our word 



THE U END," NOT "OF THE WORLD." 131 

age} and means the period or cycle through which 
anything lasts. This will be found by consulting 
the common Lexicons of New Testament Greek. 
Different things have their aion or age, the period 
through which they endure. Thus the age of man 
is said to be seventy years ; a tree has its age ; an 
empire has its aion or period of endurance. And so 
there are great aions or ages, or periods in the Church, 
under successive Divine dispensations, and the aion 
or age is the time during which a dispensation lasts. 
Thus the period from Adam to Noah constituted one 
of these ages or Divine dispensations, which was 
brought to an end by the flood. The Jewish aion, 
age, or dispensation, commencing from the call of 
Abraham, or from Moses, was finished or came to an 
end when our Lord appeared in the world. 

In two of these seven instances where this phrase 
is used in the New Testament it is applied to the 
Jewish dispensation ; viz. : 1 Cor. x. 11, and Heb. 
ix. 26. The apostle refers to the termination of 
the Jewish age, the Jewish order of things in the 
Church — saying in one place, " Now all these things 
happened unto them for examples : and they are 
written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of 
the world are come." Here we see that the apostle 
declares himself and brethren to be living at the 
time of the end of the world, if we accept the com- 
mon translation. But he did not mean to say that. 
He says that they are living at the end of an aion 
or a series of axons, meaning thereby the end of the 
Jewish age or dispensation, and of those which had 



132 THE " END," NOT " OF THE WORLD." 

preceded ; and hence Conybeare and Howson [cler- 
gymen of the Church of England, who have given 
ns the best translation of the Epistles] render this 
passage, " Now all these things befell them as sha- 
dows of things to come ; and they are written for 
our warning, on whom the ends of the ages are 
come." This is the proper translation. 

So, in the other passage, Heb. ix. 26, speaking of 
our Lord, the apostle says : "'But now once in the 
end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin 
by the sacrifice of Himself." 

Now, if we accept the common translation, the end 
of the world was to be then, at the first coming of 
our Lord. But it did not happen then. Nor did 
the apostle mean to say that it would. Conybeare 
and Howson render this passage, " But now once in 
the end of the ages, hath He appeared, to do away 
sin by the sacrifice of Himself." This is the correct 
translation, for the word here occurs in the plural, as 
in the other passage just cited. Dr. Kobinson, in 
his Lexicon of the New Testament, says that the 
apostle in these two instances undoubtedly refers to 
the end of the Jewish dispensation ; and such is the 
common consent of scholars. 

In Matthew, in the five instances named, the word 
occurs each time in the singular, the end of the age, 
and is used by our Lord to designate the time when 
the last judgment should occur in the world of the 
departed, the first Christian age or Apostolical dis- 
pensation cease, and the age and dispensation of the 
latter day Church, i. e. y the New Jerusalem, should 



THE U END," NOT "OF THE WOULD." 133 

commence. In the writings of the New Church this 
phrase is translated, the consummation of the age, 
which is equivalent to the closing or winding up of 
the dispensation : a rendering which is now every- 
where concurred in by the best scholarship of the 
time. 

Thus, it will be perceived, that, in accordance with 
our Lord's words, we are not looking for the de- 
struction of the world, nor for violent commotions in 
visible, material nature, but for important changes, 
and the commencement of a new order of things 
with respect to the Church, both in the spiritual world 
and in the natural world ; or in the world of spirits 
and in the world of men ; a new age already com- 
menced, and now progressing. 



134 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION. 

" And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig- 
tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty 
wind. " — Rev. vi. 13. 



"We come now to the other class of passages, viz. :— 
those which speak of the sun as ceasing to shine, 
of the moon as being turned to blood, of the stars 
as falling from heaven ; and of commotions, like 
earthquakes and conflagrations in the solid frame- 
work of the habitable globe. With respect to all 
this class of passages, we have this one general re- 
mark to make : they occur in the prophets ; the 
prophetic style is highly figurative, universally ac- 
knowledged to be so. It constantly veils spiritual 
things in natural things. It speaks by correspond- 
ences, setting forth things belonging to the heavenly 
kingdom by images of corresponding things seen in 
the natural kingdom. Its language is that of sym- 
bolism, while its particular words are so many distinct 
emblems. 

Now, in a general way, this truth is acknowledged 



MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION. 135 

by all commentators, and hence so many elaborate 
works on the symbolism of Scripture, and the best 
methods of understanding and interpreting it. But 
the doctrine that this visible world is to come to an 
end, and the earth be burned up with fire, is one 
so dear to the heart of many theological thinkers, 
that they are slow to give it up, and so hold on to 
any passage which may seem to give it support or 
favor. 

But the prophets speak by inspiration from on high. 
Their discourse is of Divine and heavenly things. 
They speak of the Church, and of man as a member 
of the Church, and hence they describe spiritual and 
heavenly things. When our Lord came, and He 
and His apostles explained any of the old prophecies, 
they gave them a meaning quite distinct from that 
which the Jews had learned by following the letter. 
They interpreted all the prophecies as relating to the 
Lord's kingdom or Church, as having a Christian sig- 
nification, apart from their Jewish sense. The 
sun, and the moon, and the stars, do not mean those 
literal, visible bodies in the outward world, but stand 
in the sacred text as hieroglyphics, or emblems of 
spiritual things, which hold the places in the Church, 
and perform functions there corresponding to the 
offices which these visible bodies hold in the outward 
sky. Those bodies are the visible dispensers of heav- 
enly light and heat, and so, are used as types of those 
inward things which are the mediums of heavenly 
light and heat to the soul. The symbolism is simple, 
distinct, and clear. The sun is the greater light ; the 



136 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION. 

moon the lesser ; while the stars are the more nume- 
rous, but still smaller lights. 

Now, in the Church, the first thing is charity, or, 
more properly perhaps, love, heavenly love — love to 
God and love to man. This is the central principle. 
And when this love is vigorous and active and alive 
in the Church, then the sun shines, for the Lord, who 
is the real sun of the spiritual universe, sheds down 
the light of His countenance upon us. We see Him 
as He is ; while we are warmed and vivified by the 
rays of His spirit. 

The second light is faith ; while the lights of lesser 
degree are those knowledges of heavenly and Divine 
things — those knowledges of revealed truth from the 
Divine word which the men of the Church learn and 
store up in their memories, and so keep shining in 
their thoughts. Hence, it is evident that when these 
several things decay successively from the mind of 
the Church, the heavenly lights become darkened. 

Thus, when charity wanes or dies out, or, as our 
Lord expresses it in this very prophecy, when true 
Christian "love waxes cold," then it is said in the 
prophets that the sun goes down or becomes darkr 
ened ; because, as we at stich times withdraw from 
the Lord, hiding, as it were, our faces from Him, the 
light of His countenance fails to reach us, ceasing 
thus to shine upon and influence us. 

So, when there is an eclipse of faith in the Church, 
when there is doubt and obscurity, and only a half-way 
belief in the higher spiritual truths taught in the Scrip- 
tures, men knowing hardly what to believe, then the 



MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION. 137 

moon is said to withdraw her shining, or to be turned 
to blood, the appearance presented in a literal eclipse. 

And, when the knowledges of Divine and heavenly 
things, the teachings of holy Scripture, fade from the 
memories of men, and they forget them, no longer 
recurring to them in thought, but grope on without 
them, immersed in the thought and feeling of self- 
ish and worldly things, then the stars are said to fall 
from their places, or to cease from shining, and so 
disappear. For at such times the whole heaven be- 
comes dark ; men no longer look up. There is no 
longer any illumination as to spiritual things. And 
He who came to be the light of the world is no lon- 
ger able to shine at such times or in such a class of 
minds by any of the lamps of His truth. 

Such being the meaning of this symbolism, there- 
fore, at one place in the prophet Isaiah, where the 
•New Jerusalem is spoken of, after it shall have ar- 
rived at its full, and so, a happy and prosperous state 
of the Church is depicted as coming in the latter 
times, there a contrary form of speaking is employ- 
ed; and to the Church there addressed it is said, 
" Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy 
moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine 
everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning 
shall be ended ;" whereby is signified and meant the 
last or full state of the true Christian Church in the 
latter times ; described also in the last chapter of 
Revelation, in which charity or love shall no more 
decay, nor a genuine, rational, and living faith be- 
come extinct. 



138 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION. 

Confirmations of the truth of this view of the 
prophecies are numerous and constant. The pro- 
phets of the Old Testament repeatedly employed the 
same sort of symbolism to describe the changes which 
were to occur, and which have occurred at other 
great crises or epochs, the closing up of certain im- 
portant historic periods. The fall of ancient Baby- 
lon was foretold under a similar form of emblematic 
representation. The prophecy is contained in Isaiah 
xiii. The whole chapter is occupied with it. The 
title is, "The burden of Babylon." After descri- 
bing the wickedness on account of which the destruc- 
tion is to come, it says (v. 10), "For the stars of 
heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give 
their light ; the sun shall be darkened in his going 
forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine." 
The prophet then returns to speak of the abound- 
ing corruption and wickedness which have brought 
about the overthrow of her empire. 

So, too, it is common for them to speak of the 
Jewish Church, age, and dispensation, as closing up 
or coming to an end in a similar manner. We have 
room here, of course, for little more than the gene- 
ral remark ; but that the memory may have some- 
thing distinct to rest upon, we will cite one or two 
remarkable instances. The first occurs in the eighth 
chapter of Amos. " The end is come !" the prophet 
begins. "The end" — of what? Of the physical 
world? No: "the end is come upon my people 
Israel;" the end of the Jewish Church. " Shall not 
the land tremble for this ? (he continues), and every 



MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION. 139 

one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise 
up wholly as a flood ; and it shall be cast out and 
drowned as by the flood of Egypt. And it shall 
come to pass in that day, saith the Lord Jehovah, 
that I will cause the sun to go down at noon. And 
I will darken the earth in the clear day." 

Thus, we see, are depicted the moral convulsions, 
and the moral darkness, that were to exist when our 
Lord should appear in the world, and thence the 
Jewish economy come to its end. 

One other instance may help to make this subject 
still clearer. In the prophet Joel, the closing up of 
that dispensation is described in these remarkable 
words: "The earth shall quake before them; the 
heavens shall tremble ; the sun and the moon shall 
be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. 
And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the 
earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The 
sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into 
blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah 
shall come;" and a little further on, he says again, 
" For the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of 
decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, 
and the stars shall withdraw their shining. Jehovah 
also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from 
Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall 
shake." 

So we could bring many passages of similar im- 
port, if it were necessary, to confirm the truth. It 
is the common way in which the prophets describe 
the moral declension of such periods, and the changes 



140 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION. 

which thus come in the Church. That they refer to 
the closing up of the Jewish economy is quite clear 
from what they severally assert. Besides, we have 
no room for cavil or doubt on this point. For the 
Apostle Peter, standing up before the assembled 
multitudes on the day of Pentecost, quotes at length 
this very passage we have now given from the pro- 
phet Joel, referring to the prophet for it, telling them 
that it was then and there fulfilled, in the events 
they were then beholding, in the coming of the Mes- 
siah and the beginning of a new age. 

The passage from Acts ii., 14 to 21., inclusive, is 
as follows : " But Peter, standing up with the eleven, 
lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of 
Judea, and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be this 
known unto you, and hearken to my words ; — for 
these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing that it 
is but the third hour of the day. But this is that 
which is spoken by the prophet Joel, And it shall 
come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour 
out my Spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and your 
daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall 
see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams ; and 
on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour 
out in those days of my Spirit ; and they shall pro- 
phesy ; and I will show wonders in heaven above, 
and signs on the earth beneath ; blood, and fire, and 
vapor of smoke ; the sun shall be turned into dark- 
ness, and the moon into blood, before that great and 
notable day of the Lord come. And it shall come to 



MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION. 141 

pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the 
Lord shall be saved." 

The apostle then goes on to show that the things 
meant by this prophecy were then being fulfilled, 
in the circumstances of that time, the appearance, 
death, and resurrection of the Messiah, in the 
spiritual changes thus wrought, and in the closing 
up of the old dispensation, thus brought to an end. 

Hence, therefore, the argument is a short one; 
and, as we think, both a sound and a clear one. As 
such movements and convulsions did not take place 
in the physical heavens and in the habitable globe, 
when the empire of ancient Babylon was destroyed, 
nor yet when the Jewish economy came to its ter- 
mination, at the time of the first coming of our Lord ; 
so we believe they will not occur at the end of the 
first Christian dispensation, when the Lord introduces 
what is meant by His second coming. But whereas, 
at the time of that end, a new spiritual order was 
introduced, and the Christian Church arose, so we 
believe that now, at this " end," a new spiritual 
order is introduced, and that the Church of the New 
Jerusalem arises, beginning to form and to spread. 

We believe that the prophetic symbolism used by 
the writers of the New Testament to describe these 
latter day events has the same spiritual meaning that 
the same symbols have in the older prophets, and there- 
fore ought to be similarly interpreted. Those pro- 
phecies of the Old Testament did receive an actual, 
and complete fulfilment in the circumstances of 
those times, and in the spiritual changes which then 



142 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION'. 

took place — changes in regard to the Lord's King- 
dom or Church, both in the world of spirits and in 
the world of men. And so we believe that the 
similar prophecies of the New Testament receive 
their actual and complete fulfilment in the circum- 
stances of these times, and in the spiritual changes 
which now take place, changes in respect to impor- 
tant things relating to the Lord's Kingdom or 
Church; both in the world of spirits, and in the 
world of men. 

The pressure of arguments like these has borne 
strongly upon the methods of Scriptural interpreta- 
tion, and has produced its results. They have 
modified, and still are modifying, more and more, 
the views which modern commentators take. The 
best writers are constantly nearing the New Church 
on these points. The number of those who hold to 
a literal castastrophe is diminishing. Such has been 
the process with one text of Scripture after another, 
that we believe we shall state the matter exactly 
when we say, that there is now but one single pas- 
sage left, in the whole Bible, which, in the estimation 
of advanced scholars, is still thought to point unmis- 
takably to a physical commotion, and consequent 
ending of the world. This is the prediction con- 
tained in 3d chapter 2d Epistle of Peter, where he 
says that " the heavens and the earth which now are, 
are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day 
ofjudgment;" that "the heavens shall pass away 
with a great noise, the elements shall melt with fer- 
vent heat ; the earth also ; and the works that are 



MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION. 143 

therein shall be burned up." He then refers to the 
promise given in Isaiah, of " new heavens and a 
new earth." Many find it quite difficult to give up 
this passage in its literal application, passing it over 
into that class of predictions which speak by pro- 
phetic symbolism or imagery. But for ourselves, 
we must confess we can discover no such difficulty. 
It seems simple and clear to us that the Apostle is 
speaking here in the spirit, and according to the 
general usage of Holy Prophecy. He is speaking 
of the same events that are elsewhere foretold, and 
he uses a very similar form of language. 

When we come to reflect upon it, we shall see 
that one of two things, here, is true. 

Either the apostle, having his spiritual eyes open, 
was in holy vision, in which a symbolical representa- 
tion of the coming event was shown him, as it was 
to the other prophets ; or else, these predictions of 
his are meant to be a reference to and a summary of 
the prophecies concerning this event given by other 
prophets, and contained in other parts of Scripture. 
He must here be speaking as a prophet himself, or 
as quoting other previous prophets. In either case, 
it seems to us, the mode of interpretation must be 
the same. He must be understood in the same way. 
For, if he spake as one in vision, certainly the sym- 
bols he employs and the images he uses must be un- 
derstood according to the common rules of prophetic 
language, and interpreted as the same or similar 
symbols are when elsewhere occurring in the pro- 
phets. 



144 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION. 

But, there is no evidence*here that Peter spoke in 
vision. He does not seem to be uttering an original 
prophecy, then given him by the Lord to communi- 
cate to the world, but appears, rather, under Divine 
influence, to give a recapitulation or paraphrase or 
summary of the prophecies already known on the 
subject, especially of our Lord's words, uttered in 
the presence of His disciples, and recorded in Matt. 
xxiv., as well as in one of the last chapters of Luke. 
And the closing words of the paragraph, we may 
say, render this quite certain. For he adds, — 
"Nevertheless, we look, according to His promise, 
for new heavens, and a new earth, in which dwelleth 
righteousness," thus referring to what had been fore- 
told in Isaiah. 

Of course he did not mean to put a new interpre- 
tation on those prophecies ; his object is simply to 
recall them to mind. We think that the passage 
here in the Epistle is akin to that other one, already 
cited, in the sermon of the same apostle on the day 
of Pentecost, in which, as we have seen, he quotes 
and comments on the prophecies of the prophet Joel. 
We do not think he had changed his view of the 
meaning of the prophecies between the time he 
preached and the time he wrote. And as he gave 
them a spiritual interpretation, treating the language 
in which they are conveyed as figurative language 
then, so we believe he intended to be understood in this 
latter instance; the language quoted being employed 
as figurative or symbolical, and meant to be under- 
stood in a spiritual or significative sense. And there 



MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION. 145 

are not wanting commentators who, within the ]ast 
few years, have come to this view, outside of the New 
Church, from the simple study of the Scriptures them- 
selves. Thus, writers increase who give up all belief 
in a physical catastrophe. An opening of the Divine 
prophecies according to the laws of correspondence, 
renders clear all the subjects to which they relate ; it 
removes the obscurities and brings us face to face with 
those great realities of which the Bible treats. It en- 
lightens our minds by disclosing the actual meaning 
of the Scriptures and placing before our thought the 
enduring truths of heaven and the Church. 

We have already seen they are the interpretations 
which the Scriptures themselves, when rightly ex- 
amined, induce us to put upon them. They are the 
Lord's own commentary on His own Book. They 
express exactly what the Bible says and means when 
it is allowed to bring out its whole thought. 

It is the mode of interpretation that our Lord and 
His apostles applied to the Old Testament scrip- 
tures, when they came aud told the Jews that they 
w r ere no longer to look for the establishment of a 
great earthly kingdom, but only for a new spiritual 
kingdom : that the Messiah, instead of being a great 
earthly Monarch, of vast power and influence, sitting 
upon the literal throne of David, was a spiritual 
Monarch, ruling by the convincing power of His 
truth, and through the influences of His spirit upon 
the hearts of men. It seems to us that Christianity 
is a broader, more interesting, more real, more im- 
portant fact than a universal Jewish empire would 

7 



146 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION. 

have been, though it had covered the whole earth ; 
while the spiritual fact is far more useful to man- 
kind than the literal fact would have been. 

And so now, we get clear, definite, rational, con- 
sistent views of higher, nobler, and more enduring 
realities by opening oar eyes to the spiritual sense and 
meaning of Divine prophecy and Holy Scripture, 
than by confining our thoughts to the mere letter or 
outward symbol of the Bible ; the shell or husk in 
which the pure wheat of heavenly truth lies inclosed, 
and, to some, concealed. 

An event which affects the mental and spiritual 
states of mankind, operating to mold their charac- 
ter and their destiny through a succession of ages, is 
far greater, and holds a better place in the memo- 
ries of men, than one which affects merely physical 
bodies, like convulsions of the earth. How little do 
we remember or care to recall the great eruption of 
Vesuvius which overwhelmed the cities of Pompeii 
and Herculaneum ! The simple preaching of Paul 
in the city of Rome was a more significant fact, and 
one that lives more vividly in the hearts of men. 
That great earthquake, which more than a hundred 
years ago shook the Lusitanian peninsula, opening its 
chasms along the shores of Portugal, swallowing up 
the city of Lisbon, burying houses and people 
, beneath the soil, has almost faded from the memory 
of men ; few ever recur to it, while the memory of 
such a man as Robert Raikes, an humble individual, 
doing so simple a thing as to open and organize a 
Sunday-school, lives on, growing brighter and fresher 



MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION. 147 

as time advances, becoming stronger from the 
accumulation of its effects. So, a convulsion of 
nature which should shake the Mississippi valley, 
changing the course of the river, opening chasms in 
the Alleghany mountains, and bringing up volcanic 
islands* in the Gulf of Mexico, would not be so great 
a fact, and would not impress itself so livingly or 
forcibly upon the minds of men, as the simple land- 
ing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, or as will 
that mental and moral earthquake which has been 
shaking our social system for the last few years, and 
which is working such changes in human opinion 
and in the conditions of our American society. 

So, in this day, by withdrawing the mind of 
the Church from the outward convulsions of nature, 
which in themselves are comparatively uninteresting 
and dead, and which have no moral force or efficacy, 
accomplishing no good, and directing that mind to 
the grand events which are really happening in this 
age, we turn it from the husks and give it the corn. 
"We open for it the shell of Divine prophecy, and give 
it the meat. By bringing into view the judgment 
accomplished in the world of the departed, the open- 
ing of the spiritual meaning of the Bible, the revela- 
tion, from the bosom of Holy Scripture, of the heav- 
enly system of doctrines, and the formation of a 
church teaching those doctrines, in fulfilment of 
the prophecy concerning the New Jerusalem, thus 
opening a new, perpetual Age of development and 
progress, ministering to the elevation and improve- 
ment of mankind, calling upon them to acknowledge 



148 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTRUCTION. 

and serve the Lord in His second coming, — we give to 
the religious thought of the Church substantial reali- 
ties upon which to rest, and open its eyes to the 
actual intent and meaning of Holy Prophecy. 



SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION. 149 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION; THE PAST OF THE EARTH. 

" The Lord reigneth ; He is clothed with majesty ; the Lord is 
clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the 
world also is established, that it oannot be moved." * * "Say 
among the heathen that the Lord reigneth ; the world also shall be 
established that it shall not be moved." * * * 

" Thy throne is established of old, Thou art from everlasting." 
* * " One generation passeth away, and another generation 
cometh, but the earth abideth forever." — Ps. xcm. 1, 2 ; Ps. xcvl 
10; ECOL. L 4. 



These words convey an idea of perpetuity and 
endurance : they leave an impression on the mind 
of fixed and immovable stability with respect to the 
visible creations of God. For abiding permanency 
they are compared to His very throne in the heavens, 
which is from everlasting to everlasting. 

We believe they are to endure : and in preceding 
chapters have given a brief view of the Scriptural 
argument : endeavoring to show that the destruction 
of the visible heavens and the habitable globe is no- 
where intended to be foretold in the Scripture. 

We proceed now to present a different side of the 
argument, bringing into view various rational and 



150 SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION. 

scientific considerations which go to confirm the 
doctrine of perpetuity. 

The one we shall first call attention to is the 
argument drawn from the evolution of the Divine 
purposes. We. know that the Lord is stable; that 
His plans do not fail of being carried out; and that 
His purposes run on with a steadfast consistency 
unto the end. We have already hinted at what this 
purpose is, as made clear to us in the revelations of 
His Word, viz. ; first of all, that there may exist a 
heaven out of the human race, composed of willing 
beings, loving and serving Him forever ; and that 
this heaven may be continually increased by the re- 
ception into it of new persons, born, and educated, 
and regenerated, and grown up for that purpose. 
And, therefore, secondly, that this earth is wanted 
and intended by the Creator as a seminary for that 
heaven ; as a place for the birth, increase and edu- 
cation of mankind. There is no other origin for the 
population of the spiritual world. All the angels 
have been men, and all the inhabitants of heaven 
have been men, having mortal bodies, and dwelling 
on some material earth. For, as the Apostle alleges, 
that is first which is natural, and afterwards that 
which is spiritual. Hence, the planets were created 
for this purpose ; created to be lived on by men ; as 
much so as the houses along the streets in any of our 
cities^were built to be inhabited or dwelt in. 

Now this is the object for which our earth was 
made, and the human race placed here upon it ; that 
heaven may be increased by good men going from it. 



SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION. 151 

In order to get a full impression of this idea and 
the weight of the argument growing from it, we 
must go back a little. We must follow the evolu- 
tion of this divine purpose from its earlier stages. 
We must go back also for another purpose. It will 
be useful to look at the state of religious opinion a 
hundred and twenty-five years ago, and then mark 
some of the changes which have since occurred in 
it. 

In that day the popular idea of time was very 
limited indeed. All time, as it related to this world, 
was thought to be contained within a very narrow 
space. Six or seven thousand years were supposed to 
be its utmost extent. The earth, with all the starry 
worlds above us and around us, had been created, it 
was believed, in six consecutive days of twenty-four 
hours each, about six thousand years ago. And all 
these were to be destroyed, going back to nothing 
again, from whence they came, in no great length 
of time. They might possibly endure a thousand 
years longer, but there was faint hope even of that. 
From one to three hundred years was looked to by 
most minds as being the probable limit of its future 
duration. It was a very common idea that the 
whole of time as related to our world, from its be- 
ginning to its end, would be included in a period of 
seven thousand years. 

Such was the teaching, and such was the common 
belief while this was fortified and confirmed by 
the science of the time. Science, then in its infancy, 
had many crude notions as well as theology. A 



152 SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION. 

great many of its conclusions were hastily and im- 
perfectly formed. It brought to the aid of theology 
the indications of aqueous disturbance found on the 
earth's surface, as so many evidences of a universal 
deluge. It pointed to the volcanic flames bursting 
forth in so many places, shaking the earth with con- 
vulsions, and spreading such devastation around, as 
confirmation strong that the earth was to come to 
an end and be burned up with fire. While, looking 
up into the starry heavens, and discovering there 
certain changes and irregularities in the motions of 
the planets, it inferred that the clock would soon run 
down, that it contained within itself the seeds of its own 
destruction, and that the heavenly bodies were al- 
ready hurrying into that whirlpool of irregular motion 
in which the whole vast mechanism would at length 
be overwhelmed. 

Now, down into that world of opinion, thus con- 
stituted, of theologic and scientific thought, came the 
JSTew Church system. It opened the Word of God, 
and called attention to the new meaning everywhere 
involved in it — meaning, which till then had been 
overlooked, only a few fragments of it having before 
been obscurely or dimly seen. On this authority it 
declared new doctrine or opinion on all these subjects, 
drawing the attention of the thinkers of that day to 
a higher set of rational considerations, and saying to 
them, in effect : " Time has no such narrow bounda- 
ries as you are setting to it. The real spirit and 
meaning of the Holy Scripture is above the letter, as 
a soul is higher than the body in which it dwells. 



SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION. 153 

The first eleven chapters of Genesis, preceding the 
call of Abraham, are documents of an earlier time 
than the days of Moses. They are not simple history 
like the rest. They are essentially prophetic in their 
structure ; composed of ancient hieroglyphics written 
down, after the manner of the earliest times ; and 
under a garb of natural and worldly figures, treating 
of the church, its history, of the Lord's kingdom and 
of heavenly things. They were written for the spir- 
itual instruction of the people to whom they were 
given, and not for the purpose of treasuring up the 
memory of natural things. The creation there meant 
and described is not the literal creation of the out- 
ward world. The antediluvian ages are not the lit- 
eral ages of individual men ; the deluge described is 
not a deluge of literal water covering the whole earth ; 
the tower of Babel is not a literal tower piercing the 
clouds. The creation is older than you think. Men 
have been longer on the globe than you are aware. 
The Creator has been long in perfecting his plans. 
And, more than this, the earth is not going to be de- 
stroyed ; the inhabitable globe will not be burned up 
or disturbed ; the visible heavens are not going to 
pass away. The creation which God has made is 
stable, and will last forever." 

Thus, it challenged the whole thought of that 
age on every one of these points. It took those nar- 
row limits which had been set to earthly time, and 
pushed them indefinitely back at either end ; on the 
one hand far away into the past, and on the other 
interminably forward into the future. 



154: SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION. » 

Since then the intelligent opinion of the world 
has changed. There probably is not on record a more 
remarkable instance of the corroboration of spiritual 
truth by scientific discovery, than that which has 
been afforded to New Church views by the develop- 
ments since that day. The whole progress of dis- 
covery from that time to this has been one steady 
and constant march over from those old views, for- 
ward towards the new. Every step that scientific 
knowledge has taken has been in this one direction* 
with no retrograde movement, and not so much even 
as a looking back. Every ten years has added some- 
thing to the stock, and taken the rational mind to a 
greater distance away from the old conclusions. On 
all points are the great accepted doctrines of scien- 
tific demonstration not only in harmony with the 
New Church principles, but in many remarkable 
ways affording distinct corroborations of them. 

To-day men do not believe in the modern origin 
of our earth, nor in a creation in six literal days. 
Geology has come, and slowly turning with her steady 
hand, one after another, those ponderous leaves of the 
earth's crust upon which the whole process of creation, 
in every one of its successive stages, has been indeli- 
bly recorded, has been reading to us from thence its 
interesting and wonderful disclosures. A hundred 
thousand years are seen, now, to be no more than as 
it were a single hour marked off on the great dial- 
plate of time. For a half million of years has the 
earth been in a state of comparative rest : the conti- 
nents and the general configuration of the surface 



SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION. 155 

having been all that time in very nearly the condition 
in which we find them : while the ages which pre- 
ceded can be counted only by millions, and in con- 
templating them the mind becomes lost in a simple 
maze of indefinite duration. Stars have come within 
the field of the Rosse telescope whose light, it is esti- 
mated, has been on its way hither three and a half 
millions of years, and how much longer they have 
been shining we do not know. 

The order of the visible creation is seen to be quite 
different in many particulars from that mentioned in 
the letter of Genesis. All traces of a literal deluge 
as having occurred since man came upon the earth, 
are now known to be fallacious appearances. There 
are no evidences of such a deluge. Dr. Hitchcock, 
in his book on the subject, says that if there ever 
were any such physical evidences, they must have 
been miraculously removed from the planet, for 
none now exist. On the other hand, the evidences 
are all against it. The scientific considerations all go 
to show that there has never been any such cataclysm 
or flood as had been supposed. 

A great part of this change in public opinion has 
been wrought within the distinct recollection of 
many of us. Not more than thirty or thirty-five 
years ago, when Prof. Silliman, in his Lectures on 
Geology, began to bring out in this country the evi- 
dences of the great age of the earth, and the long 
process of creation, he received letters from clergy- 
men in various parts of the country, urging him to 



156 SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION. 

desist, and setting forth the great peril that would 
thus arise to the current views in theology. 

Within the last five years, while we in this 
country have been principally absorbed in carrying 
on a prodigious war for the preservation of our na- 
tional existence, researches have been going on 
abroad which add to the long catalogue of these 
confirmations, looking towards other important and 
interesting conclusions. The antiquity of man has 
been a prominent topic of inquiry, and the evi- 
dences of the presence of men here in very remote 
times are rapidly accumulating. More than fifty 
localities have been discovered in which human re- 
mains, bones, and various works of art, are found 
embedded in fixed strata. From down under the 
London clay, a hundred and fifty feet deep, they 
have been brought up, as well as out of the chalk 
basin underneath the city of Paris. To what con- 
clusions all these researches may at last bring us, we 
are of course unable to say, but it is enough for us 
at present that they all look towards the extension 
of past time, and the prolongation of human chro- 
nology on the planet. 



SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION. 157 



CHAPTER XV. 

SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION; THE WORLD TO ABIDE 
IN THE FUTURE. 

11 The heaven, even the heavens are the Lord's ; but the earth 
hath He given to the children of men."— Ps. cxv. 16. 

" He hath established them for ever and ever." — Ps. cxlyhi. 6. 

So much for the past. We see how patient the 
Creator has been in maturing His plans, and how 
much time He has employed in developing His de- 
signs to the point where we now find them. Literally, 
a thousand years have been to Him as if they were 
only a single day ; while everything that has been 
done has been continuously instrumental in carrying 
forward His principal purpose, of preparing here a 
dwelling-place for men. 

And when we look around us, what do we now 
behold? Everything completed? Everything hav- 
ing been converted to its use, having fulfilled its 
purpose — having performed all that it is capable of 
performing — and so worn out, and ready to be re- 
moved ? No ; we do not find that. We find nature 
nowhere worn out; quite the contrary. We flhd 
her everywhere vigorous, as ready to perform her 
usual functions as ever ; nowhere does she exhibit 
any signs of decay. 

And, more than this, the Divine arrangements are 
manifestly not yet completed. The machinery is in 



158 SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION. 

motion, running on in a most perfect and beautiful 
order towards the fulfilment of the final purpose; 
but the purpose itself, we can see, is as yet only 
partially accomplished. 

Were a stranger to visit the city of Portland at 
the present moment,* and traverse the streets in the 
burnt district, what is it that he would behold ? He 
would see motion, great energy, activity, and enter- 
prise everywhere at work. But what is the most 
general fact that from the whole would strike his 
perceptions ? Is it not this ? He would see every- 
where a general plan, as yet only partially carried 
out. He would witness the activity of a general 
purpose — the purpose of rebuilding, in the midway 
of its accomplishment. He would find streets well 
marked out ; stores erected, with business already 
begun in them ; work-shops already in use, sending 
forth the sound of the saw and the ring of the anvil ; 
with dwellings furnished, habitation commenced, 
and home-life formed in them. 

He would discover everywhere around him, 
too, the signs of incompleteness. He would see large 
portions of streets without rows of buildings along 
them ; squares of land as yet uncovered ; lots, with 
only foundations laid upon them ; stores and dwell- 
ings at different stages in the process of erection, 
and, all about him, piles of material intended for 
building purposes, not yet employed or brought into 
use. He would argue that at least as much work re- 
mained to be done as has already been accomplished. 
* Written not long after the great fire of 1866. 



SCIENTIFIC! OONTTRMATION. 159 

Well, entirely analogous to this is the scene which 
our world presents, as laid open by science to the 
rational or philosophic eye. In it we witness the 
divine purpose in the midway of its completion. 

The human race is as yet in its mere youthfulness 
upon our globe ; has not yet arrived even at its full 
historic manhood, to say nothing of the middle age 
that is to follow. It has not yet made itself even tol- 
erably well acquainted with all the mysteries and ca- 
pacities of its earthly home ; has not developed a 
thousandth of its resources, nor brought into active 
use one ten thousandth part of its building material. 

Think of the timber-bearing capacities of the 
great Amazonian valley ; the inexhaustible piles of 
marble and granite stored in the mountain ranges ; 
the hills of iron scattered over the globe ; the vast 
coal measures of our own and other continents ; the 
oil, lead, tin, copper, silver, and gold, lying hidden 
under the surface ; the other innumerable forms of 
material, serviceable to man, evidently intended to 
minister to his wants, immeasurable in value and 
boundless in extent, as yet unimproved, and only 
just beginning to be brought into use ! 

The globe itself is a habitation in the process of 
building, a dwelling not completed. Accommoda- 
tions for future peoples are being added and extended 
all over its surface. The revolutions of the seasons 
are disintegrating the mountains; their particles, 
borne down by the streams, are spread out into broad 
and increasing deltas at the mouths of all great 
rivers, where they are converted into rich grain and 



160 SCIENTIFIC CONFIKMATION. 

fruit-bearing soils. The shores of great continents 
are in a slow process of steady upheaval, bringing 
forth vast tracts of dry land out of the ocean's bed. 
Immense desert regions of sand and broken rock are 
being slowly invaded by the lines of vegetation and 
life. Myriads and myriads of builders — in the 
forms of little coral insects — are incessantly at work, 
rearing their walls of solid masonry amidst the 
waters of the sea, constructing large islands all over 
the Pacific Ocean, which are soon to become the 
habitations of men, and serve as hotels and station- 
houses along that great highway of commerce. 
Within the limits of our own Union, the land now 
occupied by the State of Louisiana has been added 
in recent periods, by the Mississippi River ; while 
that of the State of Florida has been added by the 
coral insects. 

Who, that looks at it from an elevated intelligence, 
or with any good degree of sound reason, cannot see 
at a glance that the benevolent Creator has not yet 
nearly finished this earthly mansion of man ? 

And as for mankind themselves, they have not yet 
half filled the house with inhabitants, have not occu- 
pied one-half the domain, nor cultivated one-half the 
estate. We may indeed safely say that they have 
scarcely begun to realize their own high destiny, or 
to recognize properly the magnitude and importance 
of the physical, social, civil, moral, intellectual, and 
spiritual work still remaining for them to do upon 
this planet. 

Is it not clear, then, from the active development 



SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION. 161 

of the Divine plans all around us, that it is not the 
intention of the Creator to allow this earth to be 
destroyed ? From the long preparation in the pro- 
cesses of building, we may argue long continuance in 
the performance of its normal functions. 

If we see a wise and judicious man laying his 
plans, and with much expense of time and money, 
going through the process of building a ship, we do 
not expect that when he has her about ready for sea, 
with men and cargo on board, he will suddenly 
scuttle and sink her, or otherwise destroy her. No, 
we expect he will use her as long as he can for the 
purposes for which she was built. 

Or, if we observe another, of similar character, go 
carefully to work in a similar manner and erect a 
cotton-mill, we do not expect him to stop midway 
of his object, and destroy his building : with walls 
laid, water-courses complete, and spindles ready to 
run, — setting fire to the whole, and burning it up. 
No ; we expect more rational consistency than that 
in the conduct of weak and fallible human nature. 

How much more safely, then, may we not reason 
thus from the plans of the great Builder of the uni- 
verse, who is the Father of intelligent economy, all- 
wise, who is not liable to fickleness of purpose, who 
sees the end from the beginning, and whose plans 
are in no danger of contingent frustration ! 

Our conclusion from this survey, then, is that the 
Lord has not yet even finished the great cosmical 
ship on whose deck we all are moving, — much less, 
got ready to destroy her ! The rational indications 



162 SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION. 

we are able to discover in every department of 
knowledge, like the leaves on a pine cone, all lean 
one way, all the considerations look towards the 
same point. We now very well know, what in for- 
mer times they did not know, that the stars are all 
too large to fall to the earth ; most of them, indeed, 
being many times larger than the globe. 

Of late years, the science of chemistry, too, has 
been interrogated, and made to bring in its testi- 
mony. The students of natural history have dis- 
covered that every stratum or layer of the earth's 
crust is composed of oxidized substances; while 
nearly every mineral bed is in the same condition. 
All the rocks, and all the earths and soils are of this 
character. Chemically speaking, they have all 
passed through the process of burning, and are now 
in a state of ashes or cinder. Besides the coal beds 
and the timber growing on the surface, there is no 
fuel in the world for a fire to feed upon. Natural 
science, therefore, would say that the earth's surface 
cannot be burned up ; and recent authors have made 
use of this fact to controvert the idea of a future con- 
flagration of the globe. An interesting as well as a 
very able argument to this point may be found in 
the Rev. Dr. Hitchcock's work on " The Eeligion of 
Geology." 

Many days, as we know, have been set for this 
catastrophe to occur. But the days came — and went 
— marking no change. And thus it will be with all 
days that may be so set, forever ! 

We do not believe it to be material fire that is to 



SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION". 163 

burn the earth up. Such is not the fire meant in the 
Scriptures : but prophetic fire — spiritual fire — fire 
kindled within the soul, and flaming up in the 
hearts of men. The material earth is good enough. 
That does not need purifying. It has never sinned. 
It is the same earth our parents had in Eden before 
the fall, when they were in innocence, and is capa- 
ble, as it is, of performing every function required 
of it. It is pure enough to have Eden realized on it 
again. 

But the fire burning in the hearts of men *is of two 
kinds, good and evil ; pure and impure. A love for 
what is true, and just, and right, with a desire to 
extend truth and goodness and justice : and on the 
other hand, a zeal in what is wrong ; the desire of 
doing evil ; with the flaming forth of passion and 
lust. Now these two kinds of fire are burning ; and 
they are having their effect on the earth. By the 
evil fires the wicked are burned up and destroyed, as 
to their characters, and are then removed out of the 
world; while the heavenly fires, which flow into 
men's minds from above, are also burning in the 
hearts of the good ; and are purifying them as to 
their characters, and are christianizing them more 
and more. Thus is the earth being changed all the 
time. The good fire is gaining, and so continually 
removing the old earth that was, and much of which 
is, the old earth of corruption and sin : and as 
gradually creating and establishing a new earth, an 
earth of greater intelligence and virtue, an earth in 
which dwelleth righteousness. 



164 THE STABILITY OF THE VISIBLE HEAVENS. 



CHAPTER XYI. 

THE STABILITY OF THE VISIBLE HEAVENS. 

" The heavens declare the glory of Gk)d ; and the firmament 
showeth the work of His hands." — Ps. xix. 1. 



One of the most beautiful and sublime confir- 
mations of this view comes to us from the science of 
astronomy. It is said in the prophetic song of 
Deborah, in the Book of Judges, that " the stars in 
their courses 'fought " for Israel. And so it may be 
equally said at this day, that the stars in their 
courses fight for, that is, testify to, the truths of the 
JSTew Church. In what we are about to say on this 
subject we shall use the words of one better able to 
speak with authority in relation to it than ourselves. 
We quote the language of the late Professor Mitchell, 
the well-known American astronomer, and Superin- 
tendent of the Observatory -at Cincinnati ; and more 
recently remembered and lamented as a Major- 
General in the armies of the United States, laying 
down his life in the service of his country. The fol- 
lowing extract is taken from his popular work on 
the Planetary Worlds : 

" So far then, as the organization of the great 



THE STABILITY OF THE VISIBLE HEAVENS. 165 

planetary system is concerned, we do not find with- 
in itself the elements of its own destruction. Alter- 
ation and change are everywhere found — all is in 
motion — orbits expanding and contracting — their 
planes rocking up and down — their perihelia and 
nodes sweeping in opposite directions round the sun, 
— but the limits of all these changes are fixed. These 
limits can never be passed ; and, at the end of a vast 
period, amounting to many millions of years, the 
entire range of fluctuation will have been accom- 
plished, the entire system, planets, orbits, inclina- 
tions, eccentricities, perihelia, and nodes, will have 
regained their original values and places, and the 
great bell of eternity will then have sounded one ! 

u Thus do we find that God has built the heavens 
in wisdom to declare His glory, and to show forth 
His handiwork. There are no iron tracks with bars 
and bolts to hold the planets in their orbits. Freely 
in space they move, ever changing, but never 
changed ; poised and balancing ; disturbing and dis- 
turbed ; onward they fly, fulfilling with unerring 
certainty their mighty cycles. The entire system 
forms one grand piece of celestial machinery ; circle 
within circle ; wheel within wheel ; cycle within 
cycle ; revolutions so swift as to be completed in a 
few hours; movements so slow that their mighty 
periods are counted (only) by millions of years. 

" Are we to believe that the Divine Architect con- 
structed this admirably adjusted system to wear out, 
and to fall in ruins, even before one single revolution 
of its complex scheme of wheels had been performed ? 



166 THE STABILITY OF THE VISIBLE HEAVENS. 

No ! I see the mighty orbits of the planets slowly 
rocking to and fro, their figures expanding and con- 
tracting, their axes revolving in their vast periods ; 
but stability is there. Every change shall wear away, 
and after sweeping through the grand cycle of cycles, 
the whole system shall return to its primitive condi- 
tion of perfection and beauty!" 

The same author elsewhere affirms that about thir- 
teen millions of years are required for our solar sys- 
tem to complete a single one of these great revolu- 
tions. Such, then, is the language of the science of 
astronomy, speaking through the lips of one of its 
most eminent expounders. And such, too, ought to 
be the language of theology ; ought it not ? Such 
is the language of the New Church theology. And, 
let us be reminded, such was the language of the New 
Church theology more than a hundred years ago, when 
science gave back no echoing voice in the matter ; 
before the stability of the planetary system had been 
proved or mathematically demonstrated; when as- 
tronomers still thought that the solar system con- 
tained, in its own irregular motions, the seeds of 
decay; and while geologists and chemists yet sup- 
posed that the earth carried concealed in her bosom 
the fiery elements of her own destruction. 

What do we behold, then, in these doctrines, as 
the picture presented to us of the world's future ? 
No break or catastrophe to come in the history of the 
human race. No disheartening chasm to open sud- 
denly across the track of its onward progress ; but, 
on the contrary, the globe, like a vast patrimony de- 



THE STABILITY OF THE VISIBLE HEAVENS. 167 

scended from the Heavenly Father, given in perpet- 
ual trust to the children of men, a rich temporal in- 
heritance whose fruits they will continue forever to 
improve and enjoy ! An immense landed estate, of 
untold value, of unimagined resources, which they 
are to occupy and cultivate, subdue and replenish, 
converting everything to use, and bringing forth into 
realization every form of utility and beauty ; render- 
ing back, year by year and day by day, to the divine 
Owner and Husbandman His own fruits of rental in 
joyful acknowledgment of His bounties, in obedience 
of life and manners, in thanksgiving and praise, and in 
deeds of mutual love and charity among each other. 
Thus the earth becomes a domain for the increas- 
ing fulfilment of prophecy. The Eden-like picture, 
drawn by inspired language in the last chapter of Rev- 
elation, is held up before us as the glorious culmina- 
tion towards which all things are providentially tend- 
ing. Our immediate future, under Divine guidance, 
is to lead that way ; while the present moment, full 
of a heavenly pressure descending upon us from 
above, is warming with its impulses, and girding it- 
self for the great race of righteousness and love thus 
set before it. The last great campaign of the king- 
dom of heaven upon earth is opening before us, and 
the inmost heart of christianized humanity is beating 
in unison with the movement : while the utterances 
of the ancient prophets become the sacred watchwords 
of the hour, the inspired directions for the march, 
and the songs of holy joy that are set to the music 
of the campt. 



168 THE STABILITY OF THE VISIBLE HEAVENS. 

u All nations whom thou hast made shall come 
and worship before thee, O Jehovah, and shall glo- 
rify thy name." * * * 

" The wilderness and the solitary place shall be 
glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the 
rose." * * * 

"In the days of these kings shall the God of 
heaven set up a kingdom that shall never be destroy- 
ed ; it shall break in pieces and consume all these 
kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." 

"And there shall be given Him dominion and 
glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and 
languages should serve Him; His dominion is the 
dominion of an age which shall not pass away, 
and His kingdom that which shall not be de- 
stroyed." * * * 

u The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
Lord, as the waters cover the sea." * * * 

" After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my 
law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts ; 
and I will be their God, and they shall be my peo- 
ple ; they shall all know me from the least unto the 
greatest, saith Jehovah, for I will forgive their 
iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." 

" Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habita- 
tion, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down ; not 
one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, nei- 
ther shall any of the cords thereof be broken." " Be- 
hold, the tabernacle of God is with men." 

" I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, com- 
ing down from God out of heaven." 



THE STABILITY OF THE VISIBLE HEAVENS. 169 

" Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give the glory 
unto Him," that our lot is cast in these latter times ; 
that we are permitted to live at the day in which all 
these things are beginning the march of their fulfil- 
ment, and that, in His merciful provision for human 
want, the Lord has caused to break forth from the 
bosom of His Word, a system of theology and phi- 
losophy, not man-made but heaven-descended, which 
leads — by a thousand years — the highest aspirations 
of human thought, fitted to the age — to serve as a 
lamp to the movement ; "the glory of God to lighten '' 
us, and to instruct us aright on these great themes. 

And let us, one and all, lend our hearts and our 
hands to this movement ; working where we stand 
in aid of its fulfilment, and helping, as far as in us 
lies, to bring about in our time some of its blessed 
results. 



8 



170 THE LORD COMING A SECOND TIME. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



THE LORD COMES A SECOND TIME BY OPENING THE 
MEANING OP HIS WORD. 

" Behold, He cometh with clouds." — Rev. l ?. 



The Book of Revelation is a prophetic vision. It 
relates to the second coming of the Lord. 

In the first chapter are described some of the 
prominent features of this coming, its most striking 
characteristics. In the first verse, it is called a 
" Revelation of Jesus Christ ; " and the whole book 
relates to Him and His second advent. This may 
partly be seen from the fact that it was not given 
until two-thirds of a century after His first advent 
had been finished and He had ascended up into 
heaven. 

These things are here veiled in the common sym- 
bolism of the prophets. It begins by saying that 
the Lord sent by an angel and signified it unto His 
servant John. In the original it reads, " and showed 
it by signs unto His servant John." " By signs," 
that is, by types and emblems. 

Now these signs, or types, or symbols, are the 



THE LORD COMING A SECOND TIME. 171 

" clouds " with which, or on which, or in which, the 
Lord comes. We must remember that the visible 
things here mentioned are all " signs," and we must 
inquire, therefore, as to what they signify. There is 
something peculiar about the " clouds," in which it 
is said the Lord will effect His second advent. They 
are not the material vapors floating in our earthly 
atmosphere. These are only their u signs," or em- 
blems. The real ones meant are called by our Lord 
in the Gospel, " heavenly clouds," — " clouds of 
heaven." And these types and symbols mentioned 
in the letter of Sacred Scripture are termed " clouds 
of heaven " because they, as it were, cloud heaven 
from our view. They veil over, and so partially 
hide, or obscure — while they contain — the heavenly 
meaning of the Divine prophecy. 

It was thus that the phraseology of the old proph- 
ets hid from the eyes of the Jews the chief charac- 
teristics of our Lord's first advent, and the nature 
of His kingdom : acting like a " veil," as the apostle 
says, whenever they read the Old Testament. But 
he speaks of a time when " the veil shall be taken 
away " from their eyes ; and then they shall read 
with a better understanding. On account of this 
peculiar quality of the letter of the Bible, as con- 
taining deeper things within its bosom than appear 
on the surface, it has in all ages been compared to a 
cloud. It was symbolized by the cloud which rested 
upon Mt. Sinai, concealing the Lord from their view, 
up into which Moses was called, when the Word of 
the Old Testament began to be revealed. A similar 



172 THE LORD COMING A SECOND TIME. 

cloud, enfolding a fire within itself, was shown to 
Ezekiel in holy vision as the Word of the Lord first 
came to him by the river Chebar ; while a similar 
truth is signified by that cloud which received the 
spiritual form of the Saviour out of the sight of the 
disciples, as they stood, being in vision, gazing up 
"into heaven, as He ascended from them, on Mt. Oli- 
vet. This figurative mode of speaking of intellect- 
ual things has passed into most languages. 

Now, the Lord makes His appearance in these 
clouds, as soon as the heavenly meaning of the sym- 
bols is made clear, and they all are seen to relate to 
Him. 

As we read, then, with an unveiled understanding, . 
it is He alone who comes forth everywhere to our 
view. We behold Him standing on the clouds : for 
it is Him alone that the whole Word reveals. 

These things are now made known because this is 
the day of their fulfilment. The events foretold in 
the Book of Revelation are now taking place, and it 
is one great object of the writings of the New Jeru- 
salem to unfold the meaning of this holy prophecy. 
The Lord is thus effecting His second advent ; it has 
already commenced ; and in consequence He is pro- 
ducing the most remarkable changes in the Church 
and throughout the world, in every department of 
human thought and action. 



HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 173 



CHAPTER XVHL 

HIS coming NOW is to THE MENTAL SIGHT. 

"And every eye shall see Him." — Rev. i. 1. 



" And every eye shall see Him." — " Every eye" 
According to a most familiar analogy, this bodily 
organ is here employed as a "sign " of that inward 
organ by which the mind gets its perception of holy 
truth. It is the soul's eye to which the coming of 
the Lord is revealed, for it is by the exercise of 
spiritual intelligence that a man gains sight of the 
convincing proofs of sacred things. The symbol 
has become a common figure of speech in all langua- 
ges. Abundant, too, is the Scripture usage which 
confirms it. The prophets speak of some as having 
their eyes blinded, and being unwilling to see, be- 
cause they were unwilling to inquire about sacred 
truth that they might understand it. Our Lord 
complains of the Jews that they were blind and un- 
willing to see, because they would not lift their 
minds sufficiently to understand His doctrine. And 
because they said they saw, when they saw not, 
therefore He told them they had the greater con- 
demnation. 



174 HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 

The Apostle, in Ephesians, says to the disciples 
that he prays for them, that " the Father of glory 
may give you the spirit of wisdom and revela- 
tion for the acknowledgment of Him ; the eyes of 
your tender 'standing being enlightened, that ye may 
know what is the hope of His calling," and what the 
riches of his inheritance. And further on in this 
prophecy the Church is enjoined to anoint her eyes 
with eye-salve that she may see. 

We learn, then, what is meant by the " eye " that 
shall " see Him : " every spiritual understanding, 
every truly enlightened mind. The " eye-salve " 
for the anointing of this eye, and calculated to 
stimulate and increase its power of sight, is an affec- 
tion for the truth : a real desire to know about it, to 
inquire into it, and to understand it. As it is 
written, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what 
the Spirit saith unto the churches ; " so, we may 
paraphrase this text, and say, he that hath an eye, 
let him see what the Spirit showeth unto the churches 
by signs. For every one capable, and willing to 
exercise truly rational thought on religious subjects, 
not only may, but throughout the Book is earnestly 
invited to " come and see : " while we are enjoined 
by our Lord in the Gospel, to observe the signs of 
the times, and to interpret them with spiritual dis- 
cernment. 

This coming of the Lord in our day is exactly 
suited to the mental eye. It is of such a character 
that in order to be seen it must be intellectually per- 
ceived. For it is an advent of light, and the effects 



HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 175 

of light. Our Lord in the Gospel calls Himself the 
Light of the world, because He came as the Divine 
Truth ; and it is the Divine Truth, flowing forth and 
shining, that enlightens men's minds, giving them 
spiritual illustration, and making them wise unto 
salvation. John the Baptist " came for a witness, to 
bear witness of the Light, that all men through Him 
might believe." John " was not that Light, but 
was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was 
the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that 
cometh into the world." 

He then came in bodily form, teaching His truth. 
But that advent has been accomplished. As He 
said of it at its close, " # it is finished," and in that 
form, glorified and made Divine, He has ascended 
up, out of human sight, above all the heavens. He 
will never perform the same mission again. He 
will not present Himself again in a body before the 
natural eyes of men in the world. That work, once 
done, is accomplished forever. The Divine economy 
never repeats itself in history, but moves constantly 
forward- to higher manifestations. 

He tells us in the Gospel that His next advent will 
be of another order, different in kind. Then, He, 
in person, was visibly and locally present. Men 
could follow His form in crowds, and say, — " Lo, He 
is here, or, lo, He is there ! " At one time it could 
be said of Him, " He is gone away into the desert to 
be tempted of the devil," and at another, " He is 
gone privately into an upper chamber with His dis- 
ciples." But He tells them, when asked for a sign, 



176 HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 

that at His second advent it will not be so. Neither 
shall they be able truly to say in that day* " Lo, 
here is Christ, or lo, there" " Wherefore, if they 
say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert ; go not 
forth : Behold, He is in the secret chambers ; believe 
it not." It will not be a personal or visible appear- 
ance in any place, but a shedding forth of light, for 
the beholding of the mental eye. " For as the light- 
ning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto 
the west (or, as coming from one part under heaven, 
shineth unto the other part under heaven), even 
so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." 

What a striking figure of this coming is the 
" sign " here used ; the lightning of heaven ; an ex- 
traordinary manifestation of heavenly light ! Light 
from above, His light, breaking forth wonderfully, 
and shining more strongly and powerfully than ever 
before ; light for the mind ; light for every spiritual 
and discerning eye ; light for al] who are willing to 
become children of the light ; not confined, no- 
where locally concentred or shut up, but flowing 
forth, everywhere diffused, shedding its effulgence 
from east to west, shining into all the four quarters, 
out of one part under heaven even unto the other 
part under heaven. 

And in our day how manifest are the effects of this 
light ! How it has been flowing in for the last hundred 
years, a new dispensation of light ; stimulating human 
thought, arousing dormant faculties, illustrating the 
intelligence, penetrating the masses ; giving to all 
rational inquiry a keener sight— that it can search 



HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 177 

the fields of science as with a new and brighter lamp 
in its hand. With what a quicker perception all 
the higher relations of things are now seen than in 
former times ! Men are seeing how to apply knowl- 
edge as they never did before. More useful inven- 
tions have been discovered in this one century than 
in the whole six thousand years that went before. 
Is not this of itself a wonderful sign that the new 
age has commenced, and that this one feature of the 
New Jerusalem is being realized, viz. : that " the 
Lord God giveth them light ? " Under its influence 
the whole world is gradually moving forward into 
realms of better thought. Juster ways of thinking 
on all subjects are getting to be installed. Men are 
becoming more rational. Religious topics are viewed 
from new standpoints, with greater discrimination. 
What modifications of view do we see thus going 
on ! How the light shineth in the darkness, and 
how it is illuminating the deep valleys of man's ob- 
scurity ! The darkness is moving away, the murky 
vapors that used to shut down so closely over human 
thought, deadening its intelligence, are beginning to 
lift, and rise, and float away. 

Whence the origin of all this light which is so affect- 
ing men's minds in our day ? Where does it come 
from ? We answer, it flows down out of heaven. It 
proceeds from the Lord in His second coming. It is 
a New Dispensation of His Truth. It is a shining 
forth or illustration from Him. He has closed the 
first Christian age, the Apostolical Dispensation, and 
has begun a new one. He himself is the source of 

8* 



178 HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 

the light, and the medium through which it comes 
is His own Holy Word. The Book has been opened, 
its seals taken off, and so its inner, its heavenly 
meaning is disclosed. Thus a flood of light is made 
to burst forth from the bosom of the Word, illumi- 
nating the clouds of the letter. Prophecy is un- 
veiled, the life after death is revealed, and innumer- 
able mysteries of the soul and of the spiritual nature 
of man are made clear. The thought of angels is 
brought down for the instruction of men. The in- 
fluences of the heavens are brought nearer, while the 
Spirit of the Lord, flowing in with renewed power, 
sheds forth the rays of this light far and near. All 
men see its effects, but all are not equally aware of 
its meaning or of its source. 

But the church and the world are so generally 
affected by it, and so generally moved by it with new 
impulses, that they are quite disposed to acknowl- 
edge it as something extraordinary, as, indeed, a 
very significant sign of the times, and the forerunner 
of great events. Not a few argue from these things 
that the coming of the Lord is near, even at the 
doors. But, we do more ; we consider them as indi- 
cations that He has already appeared, in the manner 
He predicted. For, as when we behold in nature 
the mountain tops, as it were, ablaze, all gilded and 
burnished, the valley depths everywhere flooded with 
light, and the waters brightly flashing back the 
beams of day, we consider it a token, not that the 
morning is near, and the sun about to rise, but that 
the day has come, and that the sun is already risen, 



HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 179 

so we, when we see all the corresponding things 
taking place in the human world, believe it to be a 
sign that the sun is already risen, and that the Son 
of Man is come. All these remarkable things are 
not merely the forerunners, but the visible effects of 
His coming. As soon as the subject is carefully ex- 
amined in the light of history, a fact will appear 
which will be new to many — perhaps to most people ; 
namely, this, that the visible effects of this first 
century of our Lord's second coming, in altering the 
aspects and conditions of human society, the world 
over, are greater, many times greater, than were the 
effects of His first coming, in the same period of 
time. In the former age there was given light with 
less heat ; in the present age there comes not only 
more light, but also an increased proportion of 
spiritual heat, warming and animating the hearts of 
men. 

It is added in the verse of Scripture from which 
our motto is taken, that " even they who pierced 
Him " shall be able to see Him. The effects of His 
coming are so manifest, in their kind, that even they 
who have not believed in Him hitherto, may now, 
if they will, discover grounds of belief: of belief that 
there is a higher power moving in history, and of 
belief, too, in the Bible as the Word of God, when 
they come to see the fallacies of its letter explained, 
and all its inner teachings shown to be in accordance 
with real truth : true philosophy and true religion 
going hand in hand. As is pretty well understood, 
to pierce Him, in a religious or prophetic sense, is to 



180 HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 

deny Him and oppose His influence : to deny His 
Truth, His Divinity, His mission ; and those who 
practically deny His pure and holy qualities of 
character by leading wicked lives in despite of His 
teaching, may be said to pierce Him, also, in a 
spiritual sense. In this age, in this dispensation, and 
in the writing which contains its revelation, such an 
array of knowledge is given, so ample a disclosure 
of new truth is made, that the obscurity of man's 
thought with respect to holy things is enlightened, 
and, if he desires it, his former difficulties in under- 
standing and believing such things may be moved 
out of his way, and an open door set before him, 
leading into the mysteries of faith. 

In a simply literal and historical sense, there was 
but one man who pierced Him ; and he a Roman 
soldier, standing by the side of the cross. But never- 
theless, the Jewish people are sometimes understood 
to be meant, in a prominent sense, by " they who 
pierced Him ; " because it was through their action 
that the piercing came ; just as they are said to have 
crucified Him, because their tribunal condemned 
Him, and their voices demanded His execution; 
And they have continued to pierce Him in a spiritual 
sense during the centuries since, by denying His 
Divine character and disbelieving the truth of His 
mission. Thus the Jews have remained steadfast to 
their old ideas for eighteen hundred years, through- 
out the first Christian period. Thus, in His first 
coming, they have never been able to see Him, never 
been able to acknowledge Him as their Messiah. 



HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 181 

But in this prophecy we are told that at His 
second advent they who pierced Him will be able to 
see Him, that those who have denied Him hitherto 
will be able to acknowledge Him — so strong will be 
the light. In the light of this prophecy, and 
of what we believe to be now taking place, it will 
be interesting to notice some things that are going 
on among the Jews. They, like all the rest of the 
world, are beginning to be affected by the powerful 
influences of this new age. As is known to some, 
movements of a remarkable kind are commencing 
with this people. A new school of interpretation 
has of late sprung up among them, which is disposed 
to put a new reading upon their ancient Scriptures. 
The old, material, and strictly literal mode of under- 
standing them they assert to be insufficient, and th5y 
are disposed to see another and better sense in 
them. They have started independent periodicals, 
advocating the new views, and are organizing new 
theological schools. In the city of New York, a 
weekly meeting has been opened for the purpose of 
discussing the question, "Whether the Lord Jesus 
Christ be indeed their Messiah? while in some 
parts of the great West the movement may be said 
to have become still more distinctly pronounced. So 
fully persuaded are they that the latter times spoken 
of in their sacred books have come, and that the 
prophecies are now having their fulfilment, that for 
the last two years they have been building in Cin- 
cinnati, a new temple, which they have just finished. 
The first temple that has ever been attempted out- 



182 HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 

side of Judea : their places of worship hitherto having 
been always only synagogues. Some of the words of 
their chief Rabbi, on laying the corner-stone, are 
noteworthy in connection with our present subject. 
He mentioned that the events of the last one hun- 
dred years had been so extraordinary as to induce 
them to put a new interpretation on the prophecies 
of the Old Testament. They now no longer looked 
for a Messiah who should be a temporal prince, or 
even for one who should yet personally appear. 
They held that the Messiah's kingdom was set up 
wherever the principles of His kingdom were estab- 
lished and began to reign. This, they beheld ful- 
filled in these days of liberty, light, and moral order. 
Under the government of this country, the children 
oT Judah had secured to them all their rights and 
privileges. They here enjoy every blessing promised 
them in the prophets : peace, prosperity, security of 
person and possessions, every civil immunity, and 
freedom to worship God. What more could a prince 
of their own bestow upon them? What more could 
they enjoy if transported to their ancient land? 
Therefore they consider the prophecies as now 
being fulfilled, are rebuilding their temple on this 
new ground, finding here their promised land, ac- 
knowledging here to be Messiah's kingdom, and so 
here taking up their final inheritance, preparing to 
abide. 

These, certainly, are interesting developments in 
the light of New Church teaching, a kind of inde- 
pendent and unconscious testimony to our views; a 



HIS COMING- NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 183 

remarkable confirmation in the signs of the times, 
and suggesting forcibly this thought, viz. : that while 
the first coming of our Lord did not send into the 
mental atmosphere of the world a light sufficiently 
strong to enable every eye to behold Him — not 
enough to show him thus to the Jews, yet, the 
clearer light— the more powerful and lightning-like 
shining of his second coming — is so strong, that even 
" they who pierced Him " can " see Him " ; even the 
unbelieving and literal-minded Jews. are having their 
minds awakened to acknowledge and confess His 
presence. The time spoken of by the Apostle has 
arrived. The veil is beginning to be taken away 
from before their eyes, and they are beginning to 
read the letter of those ancient Scriptures according 
to a better sense, nearer their real meaning. 



184: THE OPPOSITION OF THE NATURAL MIND. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE OPPOSITION OF THE NATURAL MIND. 

" And all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him."— 

Rev. l 7. 



"All the kindreds of the earth shall wail because 
of Him ;" that is, on account of His coming, and of 
the effects it will produce. What can this mean? 
We should suppose that in view of all the glorious 
things that are spoken of this age, so many of which 
we see progressing around us, all men would rejoice 
in their fulfilment, and be glad. What, then, can 
this universal wailing mean, of all the kindreds or 
tribes of the earth ? A little reflection on the signifi- 
cant import of Scripture language will enable us to 
understand it. 

There is a part of us that belongs to the earth, and 
is earthy. There is a little mental earth in each one 
of us. The feelings of this part of our nature are 
naturally selfish and worldly. They love such pos- 
sessions, and are prone to cling to things as they are. 
These are what are opposed to reform, and what 
stand in the way of every improvement. In view, 
therefore, of the mighty changes which this coming 
of the Lord effects, the selfish desires of man, in all 



THE OPPOSITION OF THE NATUKAL MIND. 185 

their kindreds, are caused to wail and lament. In 
the Qpurse of its progress, this advent of the Lord 
is to overturn and reconstruct human society. He 
that sits upon the throne says, Behold I make all 
things new. While in another place it is written, I 
will overturn and overturn and overturn, until He 
whose right it is to reign shall sit supreme ; until 
the laws of justice and righteousness shall every- 
where prevail. We behold this already going on ; 
and, in the course of its progress, all those feelings 
of attachment with which men regard things as they 
are, by which they lay hold of the former things, # 
will have to be sacrificed and come to grief. Old 
institutions in Church and State are one by one un- 
dermined and moved out of the way, while the 
affections which loved those time-honored institu- 
tions, and thought them enduring, first oppose their 
removal, and, after they are gone, still mourn and 
lament over their destruction. This is so the world 
over. And hence the two great parties of conserva- 
tism and progress that are everywhere seen. 

So it is in every individual experience. The 
Lord would send in the light of His truth, and 
establish His coming within us. He desires to set 
up His reign within us, instituting His kingdom 
in our hearts and lives ; and,, in order to this, 
what a renovation has to take place in our affec- 
tions ! How many selfish and evil desires must lose 
their delights, and be left to bewail the loss of their 
objects and the hunger of their appetites ! 

But it is encouraging to know that these selfish 



186 THE OPPOSITION OF THE NATURAL MIND. 

and earthly things, which are opposed to the coming 
of the Lord, have nothing really vital in them^ they 
need not form any part of our real life, they need not 
enter into any living connection with the soul. We 
can do very well without them. .Nay, we can do a 
thousand times better without them than with them. 
The Lord brings them to grief, to induce us to part 
w r ith them. And He desires us to let them go that 
He may give us far better things in their stead. If 
we will let Him, He will come and create a " new 
earth" in us ; " a new earth in which dwelleth right- 
eousness :" a new set of feelings and a new set 
of affections in the natural part of our minds ; a set 
of affections that will desire and love good and or- 
derly things ; that will be obedient to the laws of the 
heavenly kingdom ; that will look up to the Lord as 
the Father of all, and, regarding the neighbor as a 
brother, will love him as well as self is loved. 

Let us all receive His holy work with the 
affirmation which the prophet here appends to his 
prediction ; saying, " Even so, Amen ! " 



THE NEW JERUSALEM A NEW CHURCH ON EARTH. 187 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE NEW JERUSALEM A JSTEW CHURCH ON EARTH. 
" Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with meii."— Rev. xxl 3. 



It remains, then, in conclusion, to sum in brief our 
doctrines on these last great points. 

We are living in the age meant by " the last 
days." The predictions of the Bible relating to the 
latter times are now finding their realization. The 
prophecies of Daniel are in the course of fulfilment. 
The words of our Lord in the Gospels, respecting 
His second coming, have come to pass. All things 
foretold in the Book of Revelation are likewise at 
this day receiving their fulfilment. 

The change of dispensations, described in the nine- 
teenth chapter of Revelation, occurred about the 
middle of the last century. Then came the " end " 
foretold, — the " suntelia ton aidnos;" that is, the 
closing or winding up of the first Christian or Apos- 
tolic dispensation, and a New Dispensation com- 
menced. The Apostolical commission to the former 
church then ceased ; its mission was completed, and 
a new spiritual system begun. 



188 THE NEW JERUSALEM A NEW CHURCH ON EARTH 

The Last Judgment, foretold by Daniel, and in 
the book of Revelation, took place, as described in 
that book, in the World of Spirits in the year 1757, 
upon those who had accumulated there since the 
Lord's iirst appearing, thus finishing the dispensation 
in hades. The last judgment once inaugurated, con- 
tinues to " sit," as expressed in Daniel ; it constantly 
proceeds hereafter, as explained in chapter vii. ; the 
vast accumulation of the evil communities there, 
will no more be allowed; it takes effect upon the 
multitudes who arrive, at longest, in a very few 
years. The wicked will no more prevail in the in- 
termediate portion of the spiritual world. Emanuel 
Swedenborg was the Seer chosen to witness the judg- 
ment and report it to the world of men. That event 
brought a new era in that intermediate region, 
separating the good from the evil, and casting the 
evil down. The good were instructed and taken up, 
and "New Heavens" were formed for them and of 
them, in the higher regions of the spiritual world. 
This removed evil influences, for the most part, from 
the intermediate world, replacing them with good 
influences. The heavens, by the increase of num- 
bers, and by an increased endowment of love and 
wisdom from the Lord, became more powerful, and 
began immediately, as a consequence, to shed down 
their influences more powerfully upon mankind, the 
church, and the world. And they were moved 
nearer to men by the Lord that they might effect 
this purpose. 

This brought a new era also in our visible world, 



THE NEW JERUSALEM A NEW CHURCH ON EARTH. 189 

which began to take effect almost immediately. Old 
ways of thinking began to give way. It was not 
long before human society began to be moved to its 
lowest depths by new impulses, and from that day 
to this, the history of the times has been one of ex- 
traordinary change and improvement. All men see 
and feel the impetus that has been given to the 
human mind. No age has before occurred, in the 
least approaching it, nor indeed would human fore- 
cast have imagined as possible much that we are now 
witnessing. 

Thus has a new, universal dispensation of spirit- 
ual light been inaugurated throughout the world : a 
dispensation to all men, and for all men ; a dispensa- 
tion calculated to bring in even more important 
changes, and achieve still more glorious results than 
any which have yet been realized. Thus, what has 
been sometimes called the " Apocalyptic Age," but 
known in Scripture as the dispensation of the New 
Jerusalem, has already commenced. 

The second coming of the Lord consists in the 
disclosure of new truth which He makes, suited to 
this age, fitted to instruct and guide it, and which is 
caused to spring forth from the bosom of His own 
Word. Emanuel Swedenborg was the man, com- 
missioned to receive this truth in his understand- 
ing, and to write out for the use of mankind the 
spiritual and heavenly meaning of the Divine Word ; 
especially of the prophecies contained therein, and 
of the Book of Itevelation. His works contain the 
genuine and authoritative commentary on the sacred 



190 THE NEW JERUSALEM A NEW CHURCH ON EARTH. 

Scripture; its truths, however, appeal directly to 
man's highest reason, and he is to acknowledge them 
by seeing them rationally in their own light. His 
works contain, too, by consequence, the true and 
heavenly system of Christian doctrine. Therefore, 
when these writings were published, and so the 
truth of the second coming promulgated in the 
world, that coming took place, so far as it rests on 
the visible, instrumental fact. The bringing forth, 
thus, of the truth into the world, is symbolized in 
the Book of Revelation by the birth of the Man-child. 
This publication was in general concurrence with the 
Last Judgment and its attendant events in the 
spiritual world; while the influences of His own 
Holy Spirit, and the heavenly influences of His 
angels cooperating with Him, poured out over all the 
world, and the diffusion of His Word, are the 
higher means the Lord is using to carry on His 
work, preparing for and inaugurating the latter day 
glory of His Church. His first coming was to the 
outward eye, and His visible work was the cure of 
bodily diseases ; Llis present coming is to the inward 
eye, and the work He proposes is the removal of 
spiritual disease from the hearts and minds of all 
who are willing to receive Him, believe on Him, and 
obey Him. 

The New Jerusalem is the heavenly Church, estab- 
lished upon the earth ; established, not by heavenly 
beings descending in visible bodies to our earth, and 
here taking up their abode, but, by men them- 
selves, servants serving Him, willing to be guided 



THE NEW JERUSALEM A NEW CHURCH ON EARTH. 191 

by the heavenly doctrines, which have descended 
from God out of heaven, by revelation, mercifully 
given for light and guidance ; thus, a Church estab- 
lished by the Lord through the obedience of men 
willing to adopt and act from the heavenly system 
of belief. This Church, as to its system of holy 
truths, which it draws from the Word, as well as 
some of the effects which will flow from entire 
obedience to these doctrines, is symbolically described 
by the heavenly City in the twenty-first and twenty- 
second chapters of Revelation. All the promises of 
prophecy look forward to the establishment and 
general prevalence of this Church as the fulfilment 
of the Lord's merciful designs with respect to man- 
kind on earth, and as the providential culmination 
and crowning glory of human history. 

This Church, already, has a visible existence in all 
parts of the world, and in nearly every civilized 
country on. earth, while the great multitude of 
good men, which no man can number, invisibly pre- 
paring for its reception hereafter, are known only to 
the Lord himself. All communions are affected and 
benefited by its descending light and heat. 

The three essential points, which form the basis 
of its fellowship, are simple and comprehensive, and 
at the same time distinctive and clear. 

1. An acknowledgment of the Lord Jesus Christ 

'as the only God of heaven and earth, one in person 

and in essence, the Father manifested in the flesh ; 

one in whom the divine and human natures exist 

together, and in whom the fulness of the Godhead 



192 THE HEW JERUSALEM A NEW CHURCH ON EARTH. 

dwelleth bodily — one whose humanity, unlike the 
humanity of other men, has been glorified by Him, 
being fully united to His own supreme Divinity, and 
so rendered wholly divine. Hence, He becomes the 
Lamb, who alone is to receive homage or be wor- 
shipped. Therefore He says, " I Jesus have sent mine 
angel to testify unto you these things in the churches." 
(Eev. xxii. 16.) 

Those who enter the ISTew Jerusalem bring with 
them a belief, acknowledgment, and confession of 
this grand, primary truth. 

2. An acknowledgment of the sanctity or holiness 
of the Word ; that the Sacred Scripture is inspired 
from on high, the very Word of God, the only rule 
of faith and life, and the great source of instruction 
to angels and men ; those parts of the letter which 
are clothed in symbol and the appearances of truth, 
being all capable of receiving a rational interpreta- 
tion, according to a genuine spiritual or heavenly 
meaning. 

3. The way of salvation is a life according to the 
divine commandments. Such a life, when full, in- 
cludes charity, faith, good works, and every Chris- 
tian virtue. Repentance, with an effort to lead such 
a life, is accepted by the Lord, and the influences 
of His Spirit freely given. Without His help none 
could or would be disposed to lead it. By con- 
formity on the part of man to the requirements of 
holy precept, the Lord regenerates and saves him. 

This conformity on the part of man is what, 
alone, will renovate human society, restore to man- 



THE NEW JERUSALEM A NEW CHURCH ON EARTH. 193 

kind the lost conjunction with their Maker, bringing 
man into the Apocalyptic Eden, and spiritually ful- 
filling the prophecy to give him dominion over the 
beasts of the field, over the fowls of the air, and 
over the fishes of the sea ; thus putting all things 
under his feet. 



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The Principia ; or, The First Principles of Natural Things. 
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Plates, comprising 159 Figures 3 00 

Miscellaneous Observations connected with the Physical 
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Posthumous Tracts. Translated by Wilkinson. 1 vol. 8vo I 75 

A Hieroglyphic Key to Natural and Spiritual Mysteries by 
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Adversaria in Libros Testamenti Veteris. 10 vols. 
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ioner, 1744 
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Himmelska Hemligheter, Swe- 
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8 Catalogue of Books, Periodicals, 

SWEDENBORG'S WORKS IN FRENCH. 

LE BOYS DES GUAYS' EDITION. 

1. Arcanes Celestes, — 16 vol. grand in-8° 

(Chaque volume pris separement, 7 f 50°.) 

2. La Vraie Religion Chretienne, — 3 vol. grand in- 18 

3. La Sagesse Angelique sur le Divin Amour et sur la Divine 

Sagesse, — 1 vol. grand in- 12 

4. La Sagesse Angelique sur la Divine Providence, avec 

Table analytique et Index, — 1 vol. grand in- 18 

5. Du Ciel et de ses Merveilles, et de l'Enfer, d'apres ce qui 

a ete vu et entendu par l'Auteur, — 1 vol. grand in- 18 2 00 

(Nota.) Ce Volume contenant 500 pages est cote 26-., au lieu de 5 
fr., sur la demande de la personne quia pourvuaux frais de l'im- 
pression. 

6. Delices de la Sagesse sur l'Amour conjugal ; avec Table 

analytique et Index, — 2 vol. grand in- 18. 

Tome i er 5 00 

Tome 2 e 3 00 

7. De la Nouvelle Jerusalem et de sa Doctrine Celeste, — 1 

vol. grand in- 18 2 00 

8. Doctrine de la Nouvelle Jerusalem sur le Seigneur, — 1 vol. 

in-8° 2 00 

9. Doctrine de la Nouvelle Jerusalem sur l'ficriture Sainte, 

— 1 vol. in- 1 8 1 00 

10. Doctrine de Vie pour la Nouvelle Jersualem, d'apres les 

preceptes du Decalogue, — 1 vol. in- 18 1 00 

11. Doctrine de la Nouvelle Jerusalem sur la Foi, — 1 vol. in- 

8° 1 50 

12. Exposition Sommaire de la Doctrine de la Nouvelle 

Eglise, — 1 vol. in-8° 2 50 

Le meme Ouvrage, 2 e fidit, avec Table analytique et In- 
dex 2 50 

13. Des Terres dans notre Monde solaire, et des Terres dans 

le Ciel astral, — 1 vol. in- 18 2 00 

14. Du Jugement Dernier et de la Babylonie detruite, — 1 

vol. in- 1 8 2 00 

15. Continuation sur le Jugement Dernier et sur le Monde 

spirituel, — I vol. in- 18 I 00 

16. Du Commerce de l'Ame et du Corps, — 1 vol. in- 18 I 00 

17. Couronnement ou Appendice a la Vraie Religion Chre- 

tienne, — 1 vol. in- 1 8 I 50 

18. Exposition sommaire du Sens Interne des Livres Prophe- 

tiques de l'Aricien Testament et des Psaumes de David, 

— 1 vol. in-8° 3 00 

19. Doctrine de la Charite (Extrait des Arcanes Celestes), — 

1 vol in-8 Q I 50 



Pamphlets, and Trails. 9 

20. Doctrine de la Nouvelle Jerusalem sur la Charite (Ou- fr. c. 

vrage posthume), — I vol. in-8° I oo 

21. Des Biens de la Charite ou bonnes CEuvres, et Explica- 

tion du Decalogue, — 1 vol. in-32 I 50 

22. De la Parole et de sa Saintete, — I vol. in-32 75 

23. De la Toute-Presence et de la Toute-Science de Dieu, — 

in-32 _ ^ 50 

24. Neuf Questions sur la Trinite proposees a Em. Sweden- 

borg par Thomas Hartley, et Reponses de Sweden- 

borg - 25 

25. Autobiographic de Swedenborg 25 

26. Du Cheval Blanc, dont 1] est parle dans 1' Apocalypse, — 

in-8° 1 00 

27. Doctrine sur Dieu Triun, — in-32 2 00 

28. L' Apocalypse Revelee, dans iaquelle sont devoiles ies ar- 

canes qui y sont predits, et qui jusqu'a present ont ete 
profondement caches, — 3 vol. grand in- 18, avec Table 
analytique et Index a la fin du 3* volume 15 00 

29. L' Apocalypse Expiiquee selon le sens spirituel, — 7 vol. 

grand in-8°, avec Index a ia fin du 7 J volume 70 00 

(Chaque volume pris separement, 10 fr.) 

WORKS RELATING TO THE NEW CHURCH, 

PUBLISHED BY J. F. E. LE BOYS DES GUAYS. 

Index General des passages de la Divine Parole cites dans les fr. c. 
Merits d'Emmanuel Swedenborg, — 1 vol. grand' in-8° 10 00 

Lettres a un homme du monde, ou Systiine de Philosophie re- 

ligieuse, — 1 vol. in- 18 3 00 

L' Apocalypse dans son sens spirituel, d'apres l'Apocalypse 
Revelee et l'Apocalypse Expiiquee de Swedenborg, sui- 
vie du sens spirituel du XXIV e Chap, de Matthieu, 
d'apres les Arcanes Celestes, — 1 vol. grand in-8' 7 50 

De la Religion consideree dans son action sur Petal de la so- 

ciete 50 

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Note. — The prices of the above books will be determined by the price of 
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IO Catalogue of Books, Periodicals \ 

COLLATERAL WORKS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 

AMERICAN EDITIONS. 

Arbouin's Regenerate Life 
Authenticity of the Gospels 
Barrett's Lectures 

" Letters on the Trinity 
Centenary Addresses 
Clowes, Golden Wedding Ring 
Compendium and Life of Swedenborg 
Des Guays' Letters to a Man of the World 

a u u a 

Dictionary of Correspondences 
Documents concerning Swedenborg 

" " paper 

Doughty, Mrs., Trifles 
Evans, W. F., Celestial Dawn 

" New Age 

Fernald's First Causes of Character 
" Eternity of Heaven and Hell 
" Life of Swedenborg 

cloth 
Ford, Guardian Spirits 

" Re-baptism 
Giles on the Atonement, paper 
cloth 

« u u 

" on Man as a Spiritual Being 

" " ". paper 

Grindon, Life, its Nature, etc. 

" Little Things of Nature 

" Phenomena of Plant Life 

" Sexuality of Nature 
Hayden on Spiritualism 

" Ten Chapters on Marriage 

" Lectures on the Apocalypse 

" Light on the Last Things 
Hiller, Sermons on the Ten Commandments 

" Gems from Swedenborg 
Hindmarsh's Vindication 
Hobart's Life of Swedenborg 
Holcombe, Our Children in Heaven 
Horton, Mrs., Divine Law of Birth 
Howard's Journey of the Israelites 
Mason, Manual of Piety 
New Jerusalem Tracis, cloth 
Noble's Appeal 
Our Eternal Homes 
Parsons' Deus-PIomo 

" Essays, First Series 



$o 75 


i 


OO 


i 


50 




40 


i 


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75 



Pamphlets y and Tracls. 1 1 



Parson's Essays, Second Series 
" " Third Series 

Perry on the Lord's Prayer 

Powell, Rev. David, Autobiography 

Prayer Book and Hymnal 

" " " Abridged 

Paine, Rev. T. O., Solomon's Temple 

Reed's Growth of the Mind 



RendelFs Last Judgment 
Silver's Symbolic Character 

" Holy Word in its own Defence 
Swedenborg, Charity and Faith 
Heavenly Doctrine 
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" " " Gem edition 

Exposition of Prophets and Psalms 

" of the Ten Commandments 
Worship and Love of God 
Economy of Animal Kingdom 
" Gems, 2 volumes 

Lippincotf s editions. 
Divine Love and Wisdom 
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" Divine Providence 

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Tafel's Swedenborg the Philosopher 
Tafel, Dr., Life of Jesus 

The Word of the Lord — The Old and New Testaments 
True Christian Religion, abridged 
Ware, Mrs., Elements of Character 
" Thoughts in my Garden 

" Death and Life 

Wedding Guests 
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Who was Swedenborg ? cloth 
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Worcester's (Samuel) Sermons 

(Henry A.) Sermons 
Sabbath 

ENGLISH EDITIONS. 

Bayley's Sermons, Egypt to Canaan 
" Divine Word Opened 
" Tour through Norway and Sweden 
" Essays and Reviews 



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38 


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12 Catalogue of Books y Periodicals, 



Bruce on Matthew 
Bruce's Sermons 

" Strictures, etc. 
Bush's Plea 
Bertram's Illustrations 
Clissold's Practical Nature, etc. 

" Swedenborg and his Critics 
" Reunion of Christendom 
" Letter to Vice-Chancellor 
" Literal and Spiritual Sense 
Clowes' Gospel of Matthew 
" ' k Mark 

Luke 
John 
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Hare's Difficulty Explained 
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Hindmarsh's Rise and Progress 

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Mason's Earnest Address 

" Passion of the Cross 
" Answer to Eight Questions 
" Indestructibility 
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Noble on the Commandments 

" Judges 
Noble's Appeal 

" Plenary Inspiration 

" Glorification of the Divine Humanity 

" Eight Parables Explained 



$3 


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Pamphlets, and Trails. 



13 



Notes on a recently revived Controversy 
Rendell's Antediluvian History 
" Postdiluvian History 
" Peculiarities of the Bible 
" Last Judgment 
Rich's Index to the Arcana, 2 vols. 
Ritualism, Ecclesiastical and Revealed 
Smithson's Isaiah 
Smith, Divine Humanity 
Tafel's Vindication of Swedenborg 
Wilkinson's Life of Swedenborg 

" Human Body 
Woodman's Marriage and its Opposites 
The Church of England Weighed 
Liturgy, English New Church 



1 75 

1 75 

2 25 
2 25 
6 00 

75 
4 00 

1 50 

2 00 
2 50 
2 50 
2 00 
1 25 
1 00 



NEW CHURCH TRACTS. 



THE OHIO SERIES. 



I. The Doctrines of the New 

Church. 
The Divine Trinity. 
The Lord Jesus Christ. 
The Atonement. 
The Sacred Scripture. 
Science of Correspondences. 
Apparent Truths of the 

Word. 
Creation and Fall of Man. 
The General Deluge. 
End of the World. 

11. Nature and Use of Prayer. 

12. Spiritual Temptations. 



2. 

3- 

4- 
5- 
6. 

7. 



9- 
10. 



13. Doctrine of Regeneration. 

14. What is True Charity ? 

15. What is True Faith ? 

16. Meaning and Use of Baptism. 

17. The Holy Supper. 

18. What is Life? 

19. Doctrine of the Resurrec- 

tion. 

20. The Last Judgment. 

21. Origin of Angels. 

22. Heaven. 

23. Hell and its Miseries. 

24. Life and Works of Sweden- 

borg. 



THE BOSTON SEEIES. 

12 Numbers, 30 pp. each, per number 

THE CONVENTION SERIES. 

1 1 Numbers, 32 pp. each, per number 

LONDON SERIES! 

1. A Declaration respecting the Doctrines taught by Swe- 

denborg, drawn up by Dr. Beyer, at the command of 
the King of Sweden 

2. Proofs of the Supreme Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ 

3. A Dialogue on the Apostolic Doctrine of the Atonement 

4. The True Object of Christian Worship demonstrated ; and 

the Doctrine of the Trinity cleared of all Difficulties 



cts. 
7 



Each. 



6 

6 

10 



14 Catalogue of Books, Periodicals, 

5. A Few Plain Answers to the Question, Why do you re- cts. 

ceive the Testimony of Swedenborg ? 9 

6. The Life after Death 9 

7. Reasons for Receiving the Doctrines of the New Church 6 

8. An Inquiry into the Laws according to which the Word of 

God is written 3 

9. Some Account of Emanuel Swedenborg 5 

10. Regeneration 5 

11. The Gospel ; or, Glad Tidings of Salvation from Sin 3 

12. The Word of God ; and the Correspondence between Na- 

tural and Spiritual Things, according to which it is 

written 7 

13. Charity and Faith 5 

14. The Trinity in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and 

the True Nature of his Humanity 6 

15. The Atonement, Sacrifice, and Mediation of Jesus Christ 6 

16. Repentance, Remission of Sins, Regeneration, and Merit 3 

1 7. The Nature and Necessity of Good Works 3 

18. A Brief Abstract of the Doctrines of the New Church re- 

specting the Lord, his Divine and Human Natures ; the 

Trinity in Unity ; Redemption and Salvation 6 

19. The Claims of Swedenborg to Supernatural Communica- 

tion 6 

20. Marriage and its Spiritual Uses 9 

21. Justification by Faith 5 

22. The Christian's Companion, a Short Sermon and Prayers 7 

23. Swedenborg's Synopsis of the Doctrines of the Christian 

Religion 9 

24. Prayer and its Uses 7 

25. The Divine Providence 5 

26. A New Christian Church, the Fulfilment of Prophecy 6 , 

27. The Resurrection 6 

28. The Last Judgment and Second Advent 6 

29. Human Responsibility 6 

30. The Contrast 3 

31. Why did Jesus Christ Pray to the Father ? 6 

32. The Will and Understanding 6 

33. The Intercession of Jesus Christ 6 

34. Jesus the Fountain of Life and Light 6 

35. The Harmony of the Divine Attributes 6 

36. The Meaning of Anger when ascribed to God 3 

37. Apparent Truths in the Word not to be confounded with 

genuine Truths 9 

38. Forgiveness of Sins no Title to Heaven 6 

39. The Existence of God I 

40. What is meant by the terms Father and Son when applied 

to God? 1 

%* The above Tracts may be ordered by the numbers prefixed to 
them. 



Pamphlets -, and Trails. 15 
NEW CHURCH BOOKS FOR CHILDREN. 

ARTHUR'S HOME STORIES. 

4. The Peacemaker $1 00 

5. Not Anything for Peace I oo 

6. After a Shadow I oo 
Arthur's Juvenile Library. 12 vols., each 75 

" Children's Hour, 3 vols., each I 00 

carter's juvenile series. 

1. Santa Claus I 00 

2. Truths for Children I 00 

3. Morning Ride I 00 

4. Effie Gray 1 00 

5. Stories in Prose and Verse I 00 

6. Little Stories for Little Folks 1 00 
Catechism, or Decalogue Explained 50 

" for Children 25 

" for Children — English 5 

Child's First Catechism " 5 

" True Christian Religion 50 

Doctrinal Class-Eook, paper 30 

cloth 40 

" Questions concerning the Sacred Scripture 12 

Familiar Lessons for Sunday Schools 50 

Gate of Pearl — Giles 1 00 

Heat and Light — S. Reed 35 

Life of Swedenborg for Children — Mrs. Doughty 50 

Magic Spectacles — Giles I 00 

Mrs. Wilkins' Lessons 30 

Pocket Remembrancer 35 

" " 42 

Rays of Light 25 

Rules of Life — Swedenborg 4 

Sabbath School Manual 40 

Scripture Alphabet. Illustrated 25 

Willie's Cornfield— Mrs. H. Rothery I 00 

Wonderful Pocket — Giles I 00 



1 6 Catalogue of Books, Periodicals, 

ADDRESSES, SERMONS, AND REPORTS. 

IN PAMPHLET. 

Beaman — River of Life, a Sermon $o 10 

Benade — Discourses on the Death of Abraham Lincoln 10 
Bush — Plea on Behalf of Swedenborg's Claim to Intercourse 

with the Spiritual World 10 

Bush — Letters to a Trinitarian 25 

" Resurrection of Christ 20 

" Statement of Reasons 10 

Cabell — Trinal Order in the Ministry 25 

k< R.eply to Pond 75 

Carter — Address on Rev. Adam Hurdus 25 

Fernald — Judah and Simeon 5 

" Eternal Memory of the Soul 10 

" Eternity of Qeaven and Hell 10 

Giles — Lectures on the Atonement 25 

Goddard — Sermon delivered in New York, January 18, 1865 5 

Hayden — Character and Work of Christ 10 

" Lessons of the Snow 10 

Cold 16 

" The New Jerusalem the Church of the Future 5 

" Two Revelations — Nature and the Word 6 

" Institution of Slavery 10 

" Divinity Revealed and Unrevealed 5 

Hibbard — The Holy Supper, a Sermon 10 

Lamb — The Flood 10 

Parsons' Reply to Pond 10 

Pythonism of the Present Day 20 

Reed — Swedenborg and his Mission 10 

Scammon — Glances at " Spiritual Tornadoes " 5 

Silver — Defence of the New Church 10 

Westall — Report on Duties of the Christian Citizen 8 

Wilks— Validity of Baptism 5 

Worcester — Thanksgiving Discourse, 1864 IO 

" The Passover, an Address before the General 

Convention, 1859 10 

" Address before General Convention, 1864 10 

1865 10 

" " at Opening of Theological Seminary 5 

REPORTS OF COMMITTEE ON RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 

Religion in the Family 10 

Spiritual Intelligence 10 

Connection between Marriage and the Church in Man 10 

Christianizing India — What, How, and by Whom ? 30 



Pamphlets y and Trails. 17 

LITURGIES. 

Convention's Edition, common cloth, white $1 00 

" " extra cloth, sprinkled edges 1 25 

" " " " gilt 1 50 

" " " " f • tinted paper 2 00 

" " Turkey morocco, white 4 50 

u " M " " extra finish, tinted 5 50 

The Missionary Liturgy. Small i8mo, pp. 150. Cloth o 60 

" " " " Morocco gilt 2 50 
The Prayer Book and Hymnal, for the Use of the New Church, 
containing an Order of Worship similar in form to the 
Book of Common Prayer, with Selections, Chants, and 
Hymns. i8mo, pp. 650. 

Price in fine paper, cloth I 50 

" s roan 1 75 

" * " gilt 2 00 

" Turkey morocco 4 00 

" " " limp 4 00 

" " " clasp 4 50 

The same, abridged, cloth I 00 
The Christian Hymnal. Hymns with Tunes for the Use of 

the New Church, pp. 250. Cloth 1 25 

Order of Worship. Turkey morocco 60 

Note. — There are two varieties of the Convention's Liturgy ; the first character- 
ized by the use of the single order of worship, the second by the four consecutive 
services. Parties ordering should designate the edition wanted. The styles of bind- 
ing and prices are the same. 



ENGRAVINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS. 

Andrews' Steel Engraving of Swedenborg, plain $1 00 

" " " on India paper 2 00 

Swedenborg, Card Photograph 25 

the Assessor. Large Photograph copied from 
the Engraving in the " Opera Philosophica " 1 00 

The same, card size 25 

Lithograph of Swedenborg's Residence, Summer House, etc., 
with Portrait and Descriptive Letter-press, stitched and 
covered 2 00 

Card Photographs of New Church Clergymen and of promi- 
nent Laymen, arranged in elegant morocco albums. 



Albums, Cloth, gilt 


1 clasp, 30 pages 


1 50 


" Turkey morocco 


1 " 40 " 


2 25 


<< a n 


2 " 30 " 


2 50 


(« <t tt 


2 " 40 " 


2 75 


Photographs with Albums 




15 


" Single 




25 



1 8 Catalogue of Books, Periodicals, 

STEREOSCOPIC VIEWS OF THE HOLY LAND. 

Being a Series of Thirty Views of Localities in Palestine, 
taken during the recent trip of the " Quaker City," and exe- 
cuted in the best style of the art. They are the only work 
of the kind extant, and are especially recommended to Sab- 
bath Schools and families, as useful in studying Scripture 
history. 

Price, per dozen $5 50 

Stereoscopes, each 2 00 



NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, PUBLISHED BY THE 
GENERAL CONVENTION. 

NEW JERUSALEM MESSENGER. 

A quarto of 16 pages, weekly. Terms $3 per annum, in ad- 
vance. 

NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE. 

Octavo, monthly. $3 per annum, in advance. Volume 41 
commenced with the July number. 

THE CHILDREN'S NEW CHURCH MAGAZINE. 

Square i2mo. An elegantly illustrated Monthly. Illumina- 
ted cover ; tinted paper. $1.75 per annum, in advance. 

THE LITTLE MESSENGER, 

Folio. Semi-monthly. Fifty cents a year. 



BOTE DER NEUEN KIRCHE. 

A German Periodical. Quarto. Semi-monthly. $2 a year. 

ENGLISH PERIODICALS, UNDER DIRECTION OF 
THE GENERAL CONFERENCE. 

THE INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY. 

Octavo. Published monthly. $4 per annum. 

THE JUVENILE MAGAZINE. 

i6mo. Monthly. $1 per annum. 

Subscriptions to any of the above received at the Convention's Publishing 
House, 20 Cooper Union, New York. 

A complete assortment of contemporary New Church publications 
will be kept constantly on hand. Catalogues sent free to any one 
ordering them. Orders for books of any description, either Ameri- 
can or foreign, are solicited, and will be promptly filled at lowest 
rates at the Publishing House, No. 20 Cooper Union, New York. 

JOS. R. PUTNAM, Manager. 



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